Meadow Lakes faces change

MEADOW LAKES -- A few months ago, Meadow Lakes residents had one choice if they wanted to rent a mailbox. Starting in January, they will have two. Sound like progress?

Maybe, but sometimes the ride toward progress can be a bit bumpy.

People who rent mailboxes from a U.S. Postal Service contract station in the Rainbow Center received a notice in the mail last summer that the station would be "temporarily closed" while the Postal Service sought a new contractor in a similar location. Since August they haven't had mailboxes and have been getting free general delivery service from the post office instead.

The closure happened July 31, according to the Postal Service notice. A Mail Boxes Etc. franchise store opened in the same mall space on Aug. 1, according to Donna Wiggins, the MBE franchise

holder.

Wiggins' lease has a clause that prevents the mall owner from renting to another retail outlet that provides services similar to hers, including renting mailboxes. That led to rumors that Wiggins had scooped the post office somehow, a theory that Wasilla Postmaster Daniel Carper tends to believe.

"It's created a horrendous service issue. Literally what we've been doing is providing general delivery service for the people who had P.O. boxes until we get the new contractor on-line," Carper said. "It's a great disservice to our customers, which is what I hate."

Carper became the Wasilla postmaster in September. The Postal Service was already seeking a new contractor to provide postal boxes in the Meadow Lakes area when he arrived. The previous contractor would have been required to give 60 days notice before severing his relationship with the Postal Service, Carper said.

"I do know that when we asked to move down the mall we were told we couldn't," Carper said. "… I know that we're not in the habit of just moving for fun."

Wiggins -- who allowed a waiver to the non-compete clause in her lease so the Postal Service could move its general delivery operation inside a mall space -- said it didn't go down that way.

"The postmaster is absolutely misinformed. This lease was obtained after the 60-day notice was given," Wiggins said. "The bottom line is that I did not kick anybody out, here."

The Postal Service has selected a new contractor and if things go as planned, postal boxes will be for rent about a mile further up the Parks Highway at Rainbow Road. The new contract station will be operated by Sylvia Childs and will be adjacent to her general store.

At a recent meeting of the Meadow Lakes Community Council the plan to move the postal boxes to Rainbow Road was under fire from residents who said the location will increase traffic on a dangerous curve of the Parks Highway.

"They were absolutely opposed to the location without any open mind about looking for a possible solution," Childs said.

There is a street light at the corner of Rainbow Road and the Parks Highway and the parking lot at the store is used for a school bus stop. She believes the location would have been appealing to another entrepreneur if she and her husband hadn't purchased it.

"There was going to be a business there on that corner either way," Childs said. " … If this is a concern for the community, than we can unite and talk to the [Department of Transportation]. Maybe they can put a traffic light in there," she said. "You cannot please everybody. So far, I can only tell you that the people who come to the store and visit the store, they like it. Because it's one stop and they can have it all. They can get a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk and they don't have to go to

Wasilla."

The new store doesn't have a name yet, she said, but it's a general store that offers groceries and discount items. It's sort of a combination of two stores she previously ran at the Rainbow Center, one was a discount store and the other was a small grocery. She hopes that when the postal boxes are opened the box rental customers will enjoy picking up their mail there.

"Next year we're going to have two. This is more convenient for the people. It's not a monopoly-type thing where they have to come to us," Childs said.

It's difficult to say who will have an easier time renting mailboxes to the public. A Mail Boxes Etc. box costs $120 per year but customers will have to change their address to start getting mail there. Wiggins also plans to have 24-hour access to the boxes soon and her store will receive packages from UPS, Fedex and other private carriers as well. The Postal Service will move all of the area postal boxes to Childs' store after construction is complete, which should be sometime in January. She plans to keep them coming back by offering a complimentary business next to their postal boxes that has everything from milk to video tapes.

"Sometimes people come in just because it's a new location and then they find something that they just can't leave without buying," she said.

Wiggins said dissatisfied residents are simply trying to cope with changes in their neighborhood.

"I think it's the disruption that is really the irritant," Wiggins said. " … It's change. And the fact that a lot of these folks have had post office boxes in one spot for many, many years. It's just that the community is changing all around them."