On a recent Saturday, Kathy McManus, a librarian at the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Bicentennial Library downtown, found herself in a bit of a tizzy.

She had to get an account statement in the mail that day so it would reach a patron on time. The clock was ticking and she didn’t have time to run all the way to the downtown post office before it closed. Luckily for her, there was a big, blue U.S. Postal Service mailbox just outside at the corner of 11th and Broad streets.

Staff Photo by John Rawlston A pedestrian crosses Cherry Street at Eighth Street on Monday afternoon near a corner mailbox. The United States Postal Service has begun removing mailboxes that receive less than 50 pieces of mail per day.

Or there used to be.

When she dashed out the door, Ms. McManus was shocked to find that the box she’d relied on since she started working at the library 12 years ago had disappeared.

“I don’t understand at all,” Ms. McManus said. “I can see (getting rid of) phone booths, but not mailboxes.”

Unfortunately, Ms. McManus is not alone. Similar scenes have played out all over Chattanooga recently — in 87 different places, as a matter of fact.

Chattanooga used to have 652 collection boxes on its streets, explained Beth Barnett, spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service’s Tennessee district. But over the past six months, 87 of those boxes — or about 13 percent — have been pulled because officials determined they had not been used enough.

“If the volume of mail is not sufficient, then we’ll take up the collection box,” Ms. Barnett said.

The Postal Service always has conducted “density testing” to adjust box placement and mail routes, she said, but doing so has become more important as gas prices skyrocketed. The service can’t afford to drive somewhere to pick up just a couple of pieces of mail, she said.

For every 1-cent increase in fuel prices, the Postal Service’s costs go up $8 million nationwide, she said, so if a box anywhere in the country gets less than 50 pieces of mail a day, it’s going to get the ax.

“We’re just trying to make the best decision in this economy,” Ms. Barnett said. “It’s what any business manager would do.”

Mailing habits have changed in the Internet age anyway, she said. Recent surveys have shown most people now mail at their homes or offices. With online services and direct-to-door carrier service, she said, “you can literally have your own post office right where you are.”

Drop boxes and drive-through drops at post office locations won’t go away, Ms. Barnett confirmed, and the heavily used boxes in other areas aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, either.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t change the fact that the library’s mail system will be slowed, said library community relations coordinator Andrea Davis.

“Today’s mail won’t be able to go out until tomorrow morning — until we can take it to the post office — so it does put us a little behind,” she said.

Still, there are some residents who aren’t bothered too much by the change.

On Thursday afternoon Linell Finley, of Chattanooga, drove to the post office on Georgia Avenue to drop off his mail.

“I use (the drop boxes) when it’s convenient, but I just feel safer bringing everything here anyway,” Mr. Finley said.

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