Spruces Tenants Association President Susan Fabregas retrieves her mail Wednesday at the centralized mail boxes that many say create a hardship for infirm, disabled and frail elderly tenants. (Photo By Linda Carman)
WILLIAMSTOWN — Residents of The Spruces mobile home park, many of them frail and disabled — not to mention old, — say they would be endangered by walking up to a quarter mile to retrieve their mail from the newly installed cluster boxes at the park’s recreation hall.
Saying they don’t want to make the trek — some with walkers, some in wheelchairs, some with oxygen tanks — they have enlisted U.S. Rep. John W. Olver, D-Amherst, to plead their case with the U.S. postmaster general.
Residents have been lodging complaints with Olver’s Pittsfield office since last year, when the Postal Service halted delivery to the 200-plus individual mobile-home sites.
Several residents who have sought hardship deliveries to their homes, with medical documentation from their doctors, have still been denied home delivery.
Donald Anderson, vice president of the Spruces Tenants Association, said yesterday, “I don’t think they should have taken delivery away from any of us. They claim the roads are too narrow, but never mind the people. We have a lady up here who is legally blind and walks up every day with her cane. Our next-door neighbor is very handicapped and has difficulty walking.â€
He added, “If I didn’t have the car, I couldn’t walk up to get the mail because of diabetes. Even when I bring the car, my mailbox is right at the end, so I’ve had about all the walking I can do.
His neighbor, Mary Ellen Shaw, agreed that walking to get the mail is a hardship. Shaw was born with club feet, on which she has had 12 major surgeries. She has difficulty with balance and walks with a cane. Her husband, Homer Charles Shaw Sr., recently had open-heart surgery and spent six weeks in intensive care afterwards. When getting the mail, she said, they work as a team.
“I drive the car up, and he uses my cane to go get the mail. We only do that now every two or three days. I don’t know what will happen when the winter comes.â€
She added, “I am going to fall up there. I’m lucky. I can at least walk. A lot of people who live here can’t even walk. They’re in wheelchairs. It is really cruel. When I go up there and see people walking — especially the blind lady and people with oxygen tanks — I just don’t know. People have a right to get their mail delivered. I never saw anything like this. It’s not just old people but young people, too, who are disabled.â€
Olver wrote Postmaster General John E. Potter on Sept. 30, urging him to take immediate action.
“Because many of the residents there are elderly and frail, this [trek] presented and continues to pose a safety issue,†he wrote.
He said he wrote directly to Potter because, “It is clear to me that you or some other central director at the Service must intervene to override inaction on this problem at the District Manager level.â€
He wrote that he did not believe he could rely on Michael Powers, district manager in Reading, to act appropriately.
“In response to my initial inquiries about the situation to him, Mr. Powers also stated that because the Postal Service is a ‘customer-oriented organization,’ he would allow those residents who are experiencing extreme physical hardship due to the cluster box mode of delivery to submit requests for ‘hardship deliveries’ to their homes, which would be granted if the applicants substantiated their medical condition with documentation. But despite meritorious applications for the hardship deliveries by several residents, to my knowledge, none have been granted,†Olver wrote.
Susan Fabregas, who heads The Spruces Tenants’ Association, said she welcomed Olver’s intervention. Fabregas noted that not just letters and bills are delivered by the postal service. Residents receive parcels as well — parcels that are almost impossible to carry to their homes if they need a walker simply to get across their kitchens.
“We also want those people who are medically qualified to get house-to-house delivery, and residents need to know which criteria are used to make the determination,†she said. “We shouldn’t have to go without goods and services.â€
Weighing in on behalf of the residents, Williamstown Council on Aging Executive Director Brian O’Grady wrote Olver that he had received “many expressions of anger, frustration and fear from the residents,†all of whom voiced concerns for the safety of those with handicaps who may be at risk in attempting to retrieve their mail from the cluster boxes.
O’Grady added, “Many of the residents are homebound and/or in wheelchairs and were extremely concerned about how they would be able to get their mail on a daily basis.â€
It was the safety of mail carriers, not the park residents, that prompted the halt to house-to-house delivery, according Powers, who told Olver that the change was made “due to rising safety concerns†apparently caused by the condition of roads in the park.
Olver wrote that, with complaints continuing unabated, he assigned a staff person to inspect The Spruces.
“He found the roads to be in fair to good condition and not in a state that would endanger mail carriers, especially when one considers that these roads are used without incident every day by those residents of The Spruces who are able to drive,†he wrote
Richard DelMasto of Olver’s staff personally visited some residents who had submitted waiver requests, making the following observations:
“One of those residents … suffers from Parkinson’s disease and severe osteoporosis. Her back is acutely bent, and she can shuffle only a few feet at a time with the help of a walker. [She] also has the use of only one finger on each hand, cannot open a door and requires a personal care attendant every day. She reported to my staffer that she submitted a reqeust for a hardship delivery with supporting letters from two of her doctors, but she was denied.â€
A terminally ill man also had his request denied and died shortly afterwards, according to Olver’s hospital. Another man, against the advice of the nursing home where he was a patient, returned home to help care for his wife who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. But that man told DelMasto that “he won’t bother applying for hardship delivery because he knows from the experience of others at The Spruces that he will not be approved.â€
Still others, Olver wrote, are too proud and independent to even apply for hardship deliveries.
“The mail delivery situation at The Spruces, I believe, has become untenable for many residents there, and certainly does not indicate that the Postal Service in this instance is acting as a ‘consumer-oriented organization.’†he wrote. “The undue inconvenience and the stress that the Postal Service has imposed upon these residents is inexcusable.â€
Expecting someone else to retrieve their mail on a daily basis is impracticable for many, Olver wrote. He suggested a compromise, short of house-to-house delivery at the mobile home park — the installation of additional cluster boxes at strategic locations around the park to “shorten the distance and lessen the inconvenience to residents at The Spruces while adding only a small amount of additional time for the mail carriers to complete their deliveries.â€
But, contacted Monday by telephone at Olver’s office, DelMasto stressed that Olver wants genuine, substantiated hardship waivers to be granted to those who are frail and/or handicapped.
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Lanesborough Town Meeting to Vote Budget, Bylaws & Vehicle Purchases
By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — Tuesday's annual town meeting includes a $14 million operating budget, new short-term rentals, accessory dwelling units and sign bylaws, and free cash article appropriations.
Voters will gather at Lanesborough Elementary School on June 9 at 6 p.m. to decide on 20 warrant articles.
The fiscal 2027 budget is up a little over 10 percent. Some of the main increases are the Mount Greylock Regional School District and McCann Technical School: the McCann assessment is up more than 30 percent based on factors including enrollment and the school renovation project, and Mount Greylock's is up 11 percent.
Article 11 is for the town to vote to approve from free cash the sum of $16,298.48 for the McCann Technical School roof and window replacement project so as not to impact the budget. Article 3 is appropriate $7,586,284 for Mount Greylock Regional School assessment.
Another notable increase was in life and health insurance, showing an increase of about 26 percent.
Ambulance Director Jen Weber is planning 24-hour coverage, which means more staff and a hike in her budget. One of the articles asks the town to appropriate $234,100 to operate the Ambulance Enterprise Fund for salaries and expenses.
Many town departments are looking for new vehicles. The Fire Department is looking to replace its outdated 1996 fire engine. There are two articles related to the truck at a total of $813,366. Article 12 would transfer $225,000 from free cash into the Fire Truck Stabilization Fund; Article 13 would transfer $605,000 from the fund and authorize the borrowing of $208,366.08.
The total includes a $100,000 contingency cost to cover any additional costs if a 2026 model-year chassis cannot be secured before new emissions standards go into effect in 2027.
The board at its last meeting moved the $225,000 transfer to come before the borrowing article, changing the stabilization number. If the $225,000 is not voted on, then they will amend the next article's number on the floor, subtracting the $225,000. This shows the borrowing number significantly lower.
Article 17 asks for the transfer of $80,000 from free cash to replace a police cruiser.
Police Chief Rob Derksen's aim is to replace one vehicle every other year, meaning the oldest vehicle gets replaced about every 10 years.
He stressed that if delayed this year, the town may have to double up in a future year to get back on schedule, and that paying later usually costs more. The article will ask for $80,000 from free cash, the vehicles used to be funded by the BHRD.
Lastly, the Highway Department is looking to replace a 2014 International dump truck that will be a total of $330,000 and will take two to three years to receive.
Money will be used from last year's approval of $250,000 from free cash for the replacement of a 2012 highway front-end loader that was underspent $49,261. Town meeting is being asked to approve a transfer of $53,274.85 from free cash and the use of $227,464 from funds from the Sale of Town Real Estate to fund the balance.
Other free cash proposals include $1,200 to purchase software to support tracking and ongoing maintenance schedules of town-owned vehicles; $42,000 for the replacement of the Highway Department's storage shed roof, $200,000 to reduce the tax levy.
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