The sole blue United States Postal Service mail collection box in Gales Creek is gone.
Removed in recent days from its longtime perch near the Gales Creek Fire Station on Old Wilson River Road in downtown Gales Creek, it was the final piece of USPS infrastructure — other than regular mailboxes and some cluster box units — in Gales Creek following the loss of the Gales Creek Post Office sometime around or before 2010 and the closure of a subsequent short-lived Village Post Office.
In a phone call with the Gales Creek Journal, Forest Grove Post Office Postmaster Andre Nguyen said the box was removed due to vandalism and lack of use.
“There was a lot of vandalism to that mailbox, we also did a collection density test and it really didn’t seem like there was a lot of outgoing mail placed in that box on a daily basis,” Nguyen said.
“Overall it was just the fact that it was just being vandalized. We were finding all kinds of stuff in there,” Nguyen said.
The box in Gales Creek did not contain an antitheft device, Nguyen said, a concern because recent attempts to steal mail from USPS collection boxes have been found in the Forest Grove Post Office jurisdiction, most recently at the collection boxes near Pacific Ave at the USPS location there.
“During the election, we found mousetraps placed into our blue boxes in the front with a drawstring,” he said. “So somebody was trying to fish something out.”
Gales Creek could see the return of a mailbox, but if it were to return, it would be upgraded with antitheft measures.
“It will take some time,” Nguyen cautioned, before it’s known if a box will be returned.
“Customers have to understand, not a lot of people pay attention to that box until it’s gone,” Nguyen said. “It doesn’t really get used that often.”
Story updated to note there are some area cluster box units in Gales Creek.
Chas Hundley is the editor of the Gales Creek Journal and sister news publications the Banks Post and the Salmonberry Magazine. He grew up in Gales Creek and has a cat.
