Sudden ZIP code change in Carroll County unexpectedly leaves longtime residents without mail
By Breana Ross
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UNION BRIDGE, Maryland (WBAL) — Longtime residents on a Carroll County street randomly stopped receiving mail after a small change left a big impact.
It was a mail mystery over the past week for 13 homes on Clear View Road, where the ZIP code changed from Union Bridge to Westminster — which took residents by surprise.
Kathy Jones has lived on Clear View Road for 34 years. She now has a new mailing address, and not because she moved to a new home. It’s because she now has a new ZIP code.
“They are not changing everybody’s on the road,” said David Roberts, Jones’ neighbor. “They are changing from this address, 1700, all the way to the end, so both carriers have to turn around in the middle here and go back in the other direction. It made no sense to them, didn’t make any sense to us.”
Jones told WBAL-TV 11 News she received a letter last week from the U.S. Postal Service that informed her of the change to the ZIP code.
“It said in the letter, ‘effective immediately,’ and we hadn’t been getting our mail (for the) last two weeks,” Jones told WBAL-TV 11 News.
Roberts was the first to notice the mail issue days before anyone received the letter.
“I had a package that was supposed to be delivered, and it said that it was out for delivery. When I got home, it said it was returned to sender and it said the address was bad,” said Roberts, a 29-year resident.
The change left residents scrambling between post offices to get their undelivered mail.
“I’ve driven down there Saturday and I drove yesterday. It’s 6 miles one way to the post office,” Jones told WBAL-TV 11 News. “We are in-between a rock and a hard place, and this affects only 13 families, and they are not in their 20s. There’s nobody here that lives here that’s 20. They are older people or disabled, and they need their mail.”
“Besides not getting my mail, having to run every day down to Union Bridge to try to find it, or to go to Westminster twice, trying to get my package, let alone, now, we are saying (to) everybody in our whole life, ‘We have to change our ZIP code,'” Roberts told WBAL-TV 11 News.
And, they have to make changes to important documentation.
“I’ve changed some. I want to change with my bank, which is Truist Bank, and it says it’s an invalid address and it wouldn’t let me change it,” Jones told WBAL-TV 11 News.
“Just trying to figure out what you need to change when you haven’t physically moved is a big inconvenience,” Roberts told WBAL-TV 11 News.
The big question residents asked was, why the sudden change?
“I called everyone you can possibly think of and nobody knows anything,” said Marcia Burns, a 13-year resident. “I’ve done from the county to our senators, the commissioners, the tax office. You name it and I’ve done it, and we still have no results.”
A U.S. Postal Service representative told WBAL-TV 11 News, “The Postal Service takes these matters seriously, is aware of the issue and is looking to resolve the matter as quickly as possible.”
“It’s a major inconvenience, let alone that last year I just got my driver’s license renewed, so now I’m like, ‘Do I have to go get a new driver’s license?’ and all of that,” Roberts said. “Just trying to figure out what you need to change when you haven’t physically moved is a big inconvenience.”
A representative of Carroll County told WBAL-TV 11 News, “Carroll County is aware of constituents’ concerns and has been in touch with members of the federal delegation, asking for assistance to rectify the issue.”
“I just want it settled,” Jones told WBAL-TV 11 News.
Residents said they were told their mail would soon be forwarded from the Union Bridge post office to Westminster for delivery, but that has yet to happen as of Tuesday.
“My hope is that they would just put it back to what it was, that I’ve been told that’s probably not going to happen again. But I don’t know who are the people that made the decision, because I can say they weren’t around when these houses were built,” Roberts said.
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