Mail services hunt down recipients, deliver oranges

Every Monday at 7:30 a.m., regardless of snow or rain or heat or gloom (as the saying goes) about six Dumpster-sized orange tubs are rolled into the university mailroom, each stuffed with envelopes and packages to be sorted.

The mail is then separated by department, bundled by building and delivered, all before much of the student body is even out of bed.

“We get lots and lots of mail,” said ISU mail service manager Sheri Hughes. “We probably do half a million in postage a year.”

Sending mail is a relatively simple process, yet some people still can’t seem to get it right.  Strange as it may seem, the mailroom has received letters using regular stickers instead of stamps and letters addressed with only a first name.

“Just a first name, nothing else. ‘ISU – Mike,’” said Dawn Sollars, a mail specialist at the Contract Postal Station.

“We’re detectives over here too, trying to find out where that piece of mail goes,” Hughes added.

Packages can be an even bigger problem.

One box smelled so bad Public Safety had to be called in to check if it was hazardous. In the end, the smell turned out to be caused by cheese that had rotted during shipping.

This is not even the most bizarre run-in the post office has had with people mailing food.

“Somebody sent an orange once,” Hughs said. “Just put a stamp on it.”

The post office was the first to move into the former Federal Building on Cherry Street after it was acquired by ISU. The facility is currently be remodeled to house the Donald W. Scott College of Business. 

The renovation hasn’t been a picnic for the postal staff who had to live with the noise and smells of the construction. Once, a boiler replacement left them without heat for several months.

“We had to wear our coats,” Sollars said.

Still, the staff will be glad when the college is finally moved in.

“We’ll be glad to have company in here,” Hughes said. “We’re the only ones in here right now.”

However, they may not be entirely alone, Sollars joked, if you heed the stories of a Federal Building ghost.

“A guy who used to clean here said he used to hear noises,” Hughes said.

Mail carrier Kathy Elrod said working at the ISU postal station is great for breaking up day-to-day monotony because the job entails so many others.

“It’s different,” she said. “You’re not doing the same thing every day. We work with the customers up there. We work with machines sometimes; sometimes, we’re out on the road. We do it all.”

As of July 1, the ISU postal station will no longer be offering public retail services. The service has been cut as part of ISU’s response to state budget cuts without having to raise tuition.

However, the postal workers will still be there to sort out all of ISU’s incoming letters, cards and packages, as well as the occasional orange.