Mailboxes become an issue during winter snow plowing. Property owners are not supposed to place anything in the road right-of-way (please see the attached copy of the Wisconsin Statute pertaining to this rule). If you choose to place or build something in the road right-of-way, you are doing so at your own risk; this includes lawns. Landowners have a privilege, not a right, to place a mailbox in the road right-of-way. Mailboxes become the responsibility of the land owner if damaged during normal maintenance of the road right-of-way, no matter who is hired by the Township to maintain its roads.
Suggestions About Mailboxes
- Use a smaller, inexpensive mailbox.
- Nails and screws tend to loosen over time and more tightening may be needed.
- Try to use posts that are treated and free of large knots.
- You may need to move your mailbox to a different location if a snow drift keeps forming by the mailbox.
- You may wish to put up an additional post and piece of plywood to shield your mailbox from the force of the snow or ice as the snowplow passes.
No snowplow driver intentionally tries to damage someone’s mailbox. We should all thank them for their effort to maintain our roads instead of harassing them. The Town of Marion has 58 miles of roads, which take 6 to 8 hours to plow and apply 4 to 8 loads of sand. The town has eight lakes and many subdivisions, all having steep hills, steep curves, tight areas and dead ends. Some hills are so dangerous that sand trucks have to sand backwards and the truck still ends up in the ditch.
We all try the best we can. Hopefully, some of these suggestions will help next winter.