By Bryan Schwartzman
More than four months after several dog attacks prompted the U.S. Postal Service to suspend delivery to 36 homes on 119th Avenue in Springfield Gardens, the post office is setting up temporary mailboxes at the end of the block.
The three temporary mailboxes will each contain mail for 12 houses, postal officials said. The plan will allow letter carriers to deliver mail without risking being attacked by a resident's four dogs and save other residents a trip to the post office to collect their mail.
Thomas Daniels, customer service coordinator for the Jamaica postmaster, described the temporary setup as cluster boxes at which residents will have a key for their individual mailbox. Daniels said the temporary mailboxes will be set up by the end of the week and will be at one end of the block on 119th Avenue between Marsden Avenue and Ring Place.
Residents have been retrieving their mail from the Rochdale Village Post Office since Nov. 13 when two dogs bit letter carrier James Grosso and then attacked his replacement the following day.
“There will be no threat to the letter carrier,” said Daniels. “He can insert the mail from his vehicle.”
“Normally we don't do this type of thing in this area,” Daniels said.
The dogs belong to Rhonda Hargrave, a retired teacher who lives at 168-22 119th Ave., a house she leases from the New York City Housing Authority.
Daniels said because Hargrave's four dogs have caused the problem she will not have access to the new mailboxes. He said while the other residents were picking up their mail from the nearby Rochdale Village Post Office, Hargrave was forced to retrieve her mail from the main Jamaica Post Office several miles away on 164th Street.
The New York City Housing Authority is trying to evict Hargrave from the home because dogs are prohibited from any housing authority residence.
Hargrave has gotten rid of at least one of the four dogs, a black German shepherd named Onyx, whom many residents of the block considered the most dangerous.
Howard Marder, a spokesman for the Housing Authority, said the agency is seeking to have Hargrave evicted from the home. But he cautioned that eviction was not an immediate solution because the process may take as long as two years.
An independent arbiter has met with both sides and made a decision on the eviction procedure, Marder said. But the arbiter's decision was not made public because it must be reviewed by housing authority board members.
Marder said only after the Housing Authority reviews the arbiter's decision does the eviction process go before the courts.
“The Housing Authority cannot serve an eviction notice,” Marder said. “Only the courts can do that.”
