Time running out to ‘address’ postal changes

WASILLA — For people who have procrastinated switching over their Highway Contract Route box number to a physical address; the clock is ticking. The U.S. Post Office says that as of July 1, it will no longer recognize HCR addresses.

“Those who have not contacted the Wasilla Post Office to change their HCR box numbers to street addresses should come to the Wasilla Carrier Annex with an official picture identification and an official document which shows the physical address so that the changes can be made,” according to the announcement.

The annex is on the Wasilla end of the Palmer-Wasilla Highway off a recently named road called Bobby Day Circle. It’s near the motorhome dealership.

Wasilla Postmaster Christine Manning said that the conversion from HCR routes to physical addresses affects mostly people on the outskirts of Wasilla.

“There are some out Knik-Goose Bay and then some north of here like in Houston, Meadow Lakes and the Big Lake area,” Manning said.

She said that when the HCR numbers were implemented, they were the most efficient way to address mail. That is no longer the case.

“They don’t sort well in our automated equipment so it makes it much cleaner and more accurate notation with the physical addresses,” Manning said. “With an HC-style address, the mail could be delayed if it has to go to a manual sort. That could delay the mail piece by another day.”

Also, sending mail to a person’s physical address means phone bills have that address on them, which means computer-aided emergency dispatch systems have it in their systems, too. Which in turn means that ambulances and fire trucks can more easily find a person’s home.

Customers were notified they needed to make the switch in April 2011.

“We’re basically, I would say, probably 90 percent converted over, we’ve just got some folks that haven’t either gotten the message or the notification or just haven’t had time to deal with that,” Manning said.

She said if people aren’t really sure what their street name is, they can head to the Mat-Su Borough’s website, matsugov.us, and look up property ownership records by last name.

The borough is actually the local addressing authority in charge of naming streets and keeping address records.

“It’s really a good site,” Manning said. “Every homeowner, every property owner, is on there and it gives the proper street name.”

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.