Postmaster delivers unhappy message over address change
Staff writer
One of the six houses at Marion County Lake scheduled for an address change belongs to Postmaster Lori Kelsey, and she is not pleased.
Kelsey’s home at 91 Lakeshore Drive is one of six Lakeshore Dr. addresses in the Wilden Subdivision slated to switch to a Lois Lane address.
“My family followed the requested guidelines the county sent out,” Kelsey wrote on social media last week. “We purchased a large stone with our Lakeshore address engraved on it and have it lit up at night. We are indeed in compliance. So, why do we have to change our address?”
The reason for the address changes is that ambulance drivers often become confused in the area, county officials said. When ambulance drivers respond to a Lakeshore Drive address, they park on the roadway because driveways are prohibited off Lakeshore Drive.
Lakeshore Drive houses face away from the lake and toward Lois Lane, creating an odd situation for drivers looking for particular homes. Lot numbers do not correspond to the addresses, causing further confusion for utility records, said Marion County Planning and Zoning director Tonya Richards.
County commissioners approved the address changes last week contingent on emergency services also approving them.
Kelsey said she understood that emergency services must be able to operate in the area, but she questioned commissioners’ decision.
“I, as the Marion Postmaster, don’t remember telling anyone that there is a problem delivering mail correctly to that location at the lake because of the addresses not being on the mailboxes,” Kelsey wrote. “There are mailboxes all over the county that do not have house numbers and addresses present.”
One resident at 26 Lois Lane regularly does not receive his FedEx and UPS deliveries, Richards said.
“They’re delivering them to the wrong address because the addressing is so crazy,” Richards said.
Many houses are not marked with an address, and Richards suggested sending residents of the subdivision a letter saying to post their addresses on their property so the numbers are visible from the street. Commissioners insisted that houses without addresses are a countywide problem that needs fixing.
At the Feb. 9 commission meeting, Richards said that either 26 Lois Ln. should be switched to a Lakeshore address, or six Lakeshore Drive addresses should be changed to Lois Lane.
“No matter what we do, it’s going to be a little chaos for a while,” Commissioner Randy Dallke said. “House identification is something we need to address as a county and probably step it up a little bit.”
“We need to cut our losses, grit out teeth, bare it and everything gets a Lois Lane address,” Commissioner Dan Holub said.
The six properties at 89-94 Lakeshore Dr. are scheduled to receive Lois Lane addresses.