PAINESVILLE TOWNSHIP, Ohio — The snow belt has packed a powerful punch in more ways than one. As snowplows clear the streets, all that snow gets thrown to the side and sometimes slams into mailboxes. However, there are ways you can get some assistance with needed repairs.
As the holiday song says, the weather outside is frightful. And when Jayson Stefanek peeked out his window pane in Painesville Township, his mailbox looked like it was in pain. “This has come out of nowhere,” said Stefanek about the feet of snow that have stormed in.
Down his street, we found quite a few fallen mailboxes after snowplows pushed aside the heavy slush and snow, like at Lois Harrington’s place. “I don’t know when they did that. Yesterday, they must have knocked the mailbox off,” Harrington told us. At 96 years old, she’s lived in that house for 70-plus years. “We always get big mounds of snow. We’ve had quite a bit this time,” she said.
Even with so much snow, there is some good news for people like Harrington, whose mailboxes have seen better days. There are programs to help with the damage. “Oh! … I guess I hadn’t even thought about that. I’ll have to mention it to my neighbor,” said Harrington.
People in Painesville Township can fill out forms off its website for mailbox repair and/or to get help putting up a snow barrier for their boxes.
In the city of Ashtabula, you can call Public Works at 440-993-7036, and they’ll help with damages caused by city plows. In Ashtabula County, call the County Highway Department at 440-576-3707, which says it will do standard replacements for what its plows damaged. ODOT told us you can fill out a damage report on its site in the same area where pothole damage claims are made; just select the damage to mailbox section.
So, at a time when the weather is frightful, these programs are music to people’s ears. “I think that’s wonderful because it’s hard to find just the right person sometimes,” said Harrington.
“And I’ll try to dig it out and if they can repair it soon, cool,” said Stefan. “If not, I’ll just prop it up in the meantime, but it’s just good to know that at some time they’ll come out and take care of it.”
