Shirley Szurszewski's spinal stenosis makes it painful for her to stand, even harder to walk a few hundred feet to her housing development's communal stack of mailboxes and harder still when there's snow and ice on the ground. "It's very difficult for me to go up there," said Szurszewski, 73. "One time last winter we just left the mail in the mailbox" because of icy conditions, she said. Szurszewski is one of many residents at the Spencer Woods housing development who would like the U.S. Postal Service to replace the communal mailbox at the housing plan with individual boxes closer to their front doors. But thus far, the postal service has balked at the request. "There are a lot of older folks here," said resident Betty Hanrahan, 72. "Certainly after the winter we had last year, especially when it snowed, our big concern is someone is going to fall there. I wouldn't even mind paying for them to put them in." The complex features about a dozen "quads," a type of housing plan in which four homes share a common driveway. That type of housing is popular with retirees, but anyone can live in that particular complex. Instead of having mailboxes close to their doors or driveways, residents at the end of Spencer Woods Drive must walk or drive one block to pick up their mail from a cluster mail box on the side of a newly paved street. In the winter, when the snow plow pushes snow and ice close to the boxes, residents say getting the mail can be a slippery proposition. Shaler manager Tim Rogers said township officials are working with U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart's office to petition the postal service for individual mail boxes. Mark Dennis, senior community manager for Sylvester & Associates, which manages the development, said only the post office could give residents individual mail boxes. "We cannot just make that change, nor can the residents just make that change," Dennis said. Of the communities that his company manages, Spencer Woods is the only one he knows of that had requested individual mail boxes instead of cluster mailboxes. Diana Svoboda, a spokeswoman for the Pittsburgh post office, said that the national policy calls for cluster boxes instead of individual mail boxes for new developments, such as Spencer Woods. "In general, for all new construction like that, the national policy requires that we put those kinds of group mail boxes in," Svoboda said. The reason for the policy, Svoboda said, is that it saves the postal service money on personnel costs. Svoboda said individuals with specific medical conditions can request individual delivery on a case-by-case basis but not as a group of homeowners. Szurszewski, said she and her husband, Ed, moved to the plan, off Spencer Lane Extension, because of its convenience. "Even if we couldn't have them outside our door, at least we might have them at the end of our driveway," she said.

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