NOV. 1 COMPLIANCE WITH RURAL ADDRESSES URGED

JACKSON -- Like many rural Cape Girardeau County residents, Eugenia Dyan Ramsey has had to change her rural-route and box-number address to a street or road name and number to comply with 911 regulations.

"I thought it was important to get it done on time," said Ramsey. "It wasn't that big of a problem; actually, it made my address a lot shorter than it was before."

Although many have made the address change, there are still a number of Cape County residents who haven't. But they will have to do so soon because Cape County post offices have set a Nov. 1 deadline for all county residents to change to the new mailing addresses.

Jackson Postmaster Joyce Westrich said: "If the carrier has mail with the old mailing address on it, and knows where the person lives, they'll go ahead and deliver the mail to the box. But after Nov. 1, that may not always be possible because of the extra time it takes. That could mean the delivery of mail with the old style of address will be delayed or returned to the sender."

The delay would affect receipt of dividend or government checks, notices of insurance, driver's license or vehicle license renewals, credit-card statements, and later, delivery of Christmas cards, said Westrich.

The new address system went into effect last summer when Cape County converted to a countywide 911 emergency telephone system.

Last year all rural county residents were assigned a street name or number and house number that is now used by law enforcement, fire and ambulance personnel in case of emergency.

Most rural residents already have notified mailers to send mail to their new address, but many haven't, said Westrich. That is causing problems for rural mail carriers and will delay rural deliveries.

"Because of the growing number of people that have moved into the Jackson area, we've had to add two more rural routes, effective Aug. 6," said Westrich. "We've had to make adjustments on six other routes. We now have seven rural mail routes, and have hired new mail carriers on some of new routes.

"What it all means is we have new mail carriers who are not familiar with the old rural-route box-number or geographic addresses of their postal route customers."

Each day Jackson rural mail carriers deliver approximately 28,000 pieces of mail to 4,479 addresses. Westrich said that when carriers sort mail each morning for their daily routes they must stop and look up the new address if mail has the old address.

"With nearly 4,500 stops and 28,000 pieces of mail to handle each day, it takes too much time to handle mail with the old rural-route number box-number address," she said.

Westrich said most rural residents who have not changed to the new mailing address are the same ones who have lived at one place for 30 to 40 years.

"They think their mail carrier automatically knows where they live, but with the new mail carriers, new routes and the changeover to the new style mailing address, the carrier may not know that Joe Smith lives so many miles out on such-and-such road.

Cape Girardeau Postmaster Mike Keefe said with three rural routes, 2,500 stops, and about 15,000 pieces of rural mail to handle each day, it is critical that rural residents switch to the new address immediately to avoid mail delivery problems after Nov. 1.

Westrich said it isn't necessary to submit a change-of-address form to the post office. The post office has postage-free, change-of-address forms that can be sent to individuals and businesses, she said.