Monday, June 28, 2004

Brick mailboxes continue to go up around Warren County, contrary to county and state regulations against them in road rights of way.

But despite continued complaints from motorists, penalties for erecting the road hazards remain almost nonexistent.

And the county, at least, has no plans to stiffen its standards.

While brick- or stone-encased mailboxes are considered attractive, often match their associated houses and are almost invulnerable to vandals, they can be deadly to people who run off the road and if serious damage or death results, its not the countys or states responsibility.

The property owners liable if anybody runs into those things, District 6 Magistrate Robert Donoho said. Were trying to get the building inspector to take care of that and not let it happen stop them before they build them.

County Road Department Supervisor Jerry Young said he knows of no plans to take illegal mailboxes down once theyve been built.

We have complaints about them pretty steady, Young said.

County code enforcers can cite homeowners for them, and the county, like the state, can remove the mailboxes and charge homeowners for the work, Warren County Building Inspector Ray Watt has said.

Both county building inspectors were out of the office today and unavailable for comment.

But Young says people still ask him if theres even an ordinance against the boxes.

There has been since 1995, though boxes built before that time were grandfathered in.

The 1995 ordinance says that no person, property owner, developer or builder may construct or cause to be constructed a mailbox receptacle in the county right-of-way, which would not easily break away if hit by a vehicle, or otherwise creates a potentially hazardous roadside obstacle.

County right of way extends 25 feet on each side of a county road. Within that zone, either a 4-by-4-inch wooden or 1.5-inch metal mailbox post is recommended.

Similar standards are set by the U.S. Postal Service for boxes on state roads, said Keirsten Jaggers, public information officer for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, District 3 office. Those boxes will easily break away if hit by a vehicle.

Anything beyond those standards shouldnt be used, she said. We get calls about them, and we encourage people not to build that kind of mailbox.

While state crews can dismantle mailboxes if a specific complaint comes in, theyre not particularly proactive about it, according to Chad LaRue, branch manager for permits for the Transportation Cabinet.

As far as our personnel going out actively taking those down, that doesnt happen on a daily basis, he said. There are some weve pursued in the past and taken them down. But its not one of our big problems that we get a lot of complaints on and consistently go after. There are bigger issues that we go after.

If the state knows of a new driveway being built, it will notify the property owner or builder that brick mailboxes arent permitted, LaRue said.

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