DP News

By Sarah Hite shite@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
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Seventy years ago this past Christmas season, Burt Jones, of Pioneer Avenue in Dallas Township, mailed a Christmas card two days before the holiday to his next-door neighbor, Floyd Sanders.

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Postal carrier Carol Sosik uses a scanner to correctly route packages.

CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK/ FOR THE DALLAS POST

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Postal carrier Cheryl Sick, of Tunkhannock, sorts her morning mail before going out to deliver.

CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK/ FOR THE DALLAS POST

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‘Post’ numbers

Mail intended for an address in Dallas, Pa. may not be incorrectly routed to Dallas, Texas these days; however, many people still call the office of The Dallas Post when they intend to call the post office. Here are the correct telephone numbers for both:

The Dallas Post: 675-5211

Dallas Post Office: 675-0131

It took six days until Sanders received the card because it was accidentally sent to Dallas, Texas and returned, traveling over 3,000 miles to go 100 feet.

The incident was reported in The Dallas Post after it occurred. The article also reads, “Mail to Dallas, Pa. is so often misdirected to Dallas, Tex. and vice versa that it has ceased to be a joke. A.S. Culbert, express agent at Lehigh Valley station, keeps a Dallas, Tex. phone directory hanging on the wall for reference, so often does he receive shipments which should have gone to Texas.”

Dallas, Pa. postmaster Kristen Krashnak says mail confusion between Dallas, Pa. and Dallas, Texas happens very seldom today.

“I couldn’t even tell you the last time I saw a piece,” Krashnak said. “We take all our first class mail extremely serious. If anything, in the past a long time ago I would see Dallas, Texas but I would never see Dallas anything else (mail addressed to Dallas in other areas besides Pennsylvania and Texas).”

Other towns and cities named Dallas also exist in Georgia, North Carolina, Oregon, South Dakota, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

There have been many improvements to the United States Postal Service since 1939 when Sanders’ card accidentally went to Dallas, Texas. One such improvement is ZIP codes.

“In the early 1960s, the mail being processed by the then Post Office Department had changed dramatically,” said Raymond Diautolo Sr., USPS Public Affairs and Communications specialist. “Prior to this time, the majority of mail was domestic related. Now, approximately 80 percent of the mail is business related. Changes had to be made to the way mail was processed and delivered. The Zoning Improvement Plan (ZIP) Code was launched in 1963 to better handle increasing volumes of mail.”

According to Diautolo, the ZIP+4 code went into place in 1983. The additional four numbers allowed mail to be sorted to a specific group of streets or high-rise building. Two more numbers were added in 1991 so mail could be sorted to even more specific areas such as to a residence or business.

Diautolo said ZIP+4 code use is not mandatory, but it helps direct mail more accurately because it reduces handling and decreases the potential for human error and delivery to the wrong destination. He said that ZIP+4 is intended mainly for businesses that prepare their mail with typewritten, machine printed or computerized formats that can be read by automatic scanners during processing.

Diautolo offered some tips to help ensure mail gets to where it is supposed to go. They include typing or neatly writing the complete address of the recipient, using a full return address, writing the city, state and ZIP code on the same line and not writing a telephone or fax number as part of the mailing address.

“The most important thing to keep in mind is good address hygiene,” Diautolo said. “We use more than 10,000 pieces of automated processing equipment to sort nearly half of the world’s mail. We are the leader in optical character recognition technology - our machines read 93 percent of all hand-addressed letter mail. It is important for customers to use the correct address information. For example, Church Street or Church Avenue; use the correct directional - East, West, North, South.”