Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Keith McCord reportingWe sort of take it for granted these days that when we go out to the mailbox, the cards, letters, catalogs and bills will be there.
That's not so easy right now in Ogden because of the weather. Thousands and thousands of mailboxes are behind snow right now, but the letter carriers are still delivering!
Delivering the mail in and around Ogden right now is difficult, really difficult. Just ask 27-year veteran letter carrier Peggy Clark. She just about disappears as she delivers to a roadside mailbox. She says it's the worst she's seen in the winter.
Peggy has worked this particular route for the last six years. Because of the recent snowstorms, Peggy and more than 100 of her colleagues can't just drive up to the boxes as they normally do. They have to get out every time.
"I have almost 600 stops on my route, and in and out of this truck that many times a day, by the end of the day you're pretty beat up," she said.
Because the snow is piled so high in some neighborhoods, many of the boxes are inaccessible. So residents have gotten creative and put up make-shift mailboxes. Plastic storage containers and coolers are popular. We liked one that was a container duct-taped to a long board, which was jammed into the snowbank.
Brock Ricketts told us about a different approach. "Well, I was walking down the street and I noticed that everyone else had something out there, milk jugs and stuff. So I looked in my garage and found an old porta-potty," he explained. The porta-potty is now his mailbox.
And yes, all these are legal.
Ogden Postmaster Bob Johnson said, ""Yes they are. They're a temporary fix, but it's one where we're just trying to get the mail delivered. Our goal is to deliver every piece every day."
Johnson asks residents to label these containers with the address and the words "U.S. Mail." And, keep shoveling! The more space around all the mailboxes means you'll get your mail sooner!
Peggy Clark said, "I have a lot of people who have done the best they can, and I appreciate that. I really do!"
Normally, letter carriers are done with their routes about 4:30 or 5 each night. Lately, they've been going until 8 or so. In cases, where it's simply impossible to deliver the mail, customers will be notified so they can pick it up at the post office.
