Mailboxes are often casualties of heavy snow. (Macklin Reid photo)
Winter can be icy, cold, cruel. Sometimes, it’s the mailbox that takes the hit.
“It happens,” First Selectman Rudy Marconi said. “You can drive around town today and see mailboxes everywhere.”
Contrary to the way people imagine it, most of the broken mailboxes haven’t been hit by plow trucks, according to Mr. Marconi.
- Read more about the selectmen discussing mailbox mayhem in the Feb. 27 Ridgefield Press.
“It was a heavy, wet snow,” he said.
“The reality is, the snow has done most of the damage. It is not the plow striking the mailbox,” Mr. Marconi said.
“It is almost impossible to hit a mailbox post with your plow, given the amount of setback from a curb,” he said.
That doesn’t mean mailboxes don’t get wiped out.
“The weight of the snow itself will take care of that,” Mr. Marconi said.
Public Works Director Peter Hill, too, has come to view mailbox destruction as one of winter road-clearing’s realities.
“That’s just the nature of the beast,” Mr. Hill said. “Unfortunately, we have to get the snow pushed back.”
When there’s a good amount of snow on the ground and roads have been plowed before, the roads become lined with those familiar walls or berms — frozen snow and ice. To get the roads clear, plow drivers have to get the new-fallen snow lofted up over the frozen piles along the roadsides.
“People think we go too fast,” Mr. Hill said. “But they’ve got to realize you’ve got to cast that snow up over existing berm that’s there,” he said.
“Otherwise it rolls back into the street and you gain nothing. Sometimes you have to go a little fast, in order to make that happen.”
If the snow isn’t sent flying up and off the street, the roadway available for travel gets narrower and narrower.
“You could only get one car down them,” he said.
How many mailboxes are damaged?
“I don’t know,” Mr. Hill said. “We get enough of them.”
A plow drives down a street throwing the heavy, wet snow to the side. Most mailboxes survive, but some don’t.
The problem might be the mailbox, not the plow driver.
“Some of the mailboxes are placed in areas they shouldn’t be placed in,” Mr. Hill said. “The posts are rotted. They’re not attached well. It doesn’t take much to knock them over.
“You get that heavy, wet snow, that’s where it really causes problems. It causes a lot of problems,” Mr. Hill said.
Plow drivers also have a problem with people who put garbage cans out along the street for their trash haulers to pick up.
“I don’t know what they’re thinking about when they place these garbage cans in the street,” Mr. Hill said,
“They should place these things back in the driveways so our plows don’t come in contact with them,” he said.
Of course, homeowners who have to replace mailboxes often don’t like it. Both Mr. Marconi and Mr. Hill said they sometimes get complaints.
“Yes, we do — more than we should,” Mr. Hill said. “People are getting impatient. It’s been a long winter. People are fed up with it almost as much as we are.”
Mailboxes start at $15.99 at Ridgefield Hardware, according to store manager Sarah Scott, but they can cost $100 or more — one sells for $149.
Posts are often needed as well. They run about $50 to $60 for cedar posts.
Mailboxes do seem to sell well when there’s a lot of snow — and plowing.
“Oh, yeah. It’s picking up substantially,” said Jerry Rabin, Ridgefield Hardware’s owner.
“Twelve last week,” Ms. Scott said.
“I was driving to work,” Mr. Rabin said, “and 30% of the mailboxes on Route 33 are down.”
Mr, Marconi said many towns have ordinances that protect them from mailbox damage claims.
“I’ve been researching ordinances all over the state,” he said. “Many municipalities have adopted ordinances.
“The state, I know, will not even consider the replacement of a mailbox on a state highway — that is solely up to the resident.”
Mr, Marconi said the town has sometimes replaced mailboxes for homeowners who can make a good case.
“We have,” he said, “when the evidence supports that a mailbox was struck by a plow directly. However, seldom is this the case.”