Postmaster says ‘North Service Road’ not a valid delivery address

By Rosemary K. Otzman
Independent Editor
Belleville Postmaster Timothy C. Inman said if Wayne County changes the common name of the I-94 Service Drive to I-94 Service Road, that is not a valid delivery address for the post office.
Postmaster Inman said he would have to create the change in the national database and until somebody tells him to do so, he won’t do that.
Postmaster Inman said just changing it would screw up the post office’s sorting procedure.
But, he said, if it actually is being changed, he could make it so that both Road and Drive would work in an address.
Inman said the Michigan map that the Belleville Area Chamber of Commerce hands out shows them to be called Drives, not Roads.
Last week, Susan Gohl, a motorist who uses her GPS to find addresses for deliveries, sent the Independent a picture of the new sign on the I-94 North Service Drive that now called it a Road. She said using Road with the address gives her another location in a completely different city.
The new name would have out-of-town folks getting the wrong directions from their GPS systems, she said.
Meanwhile, Susan Ireland, executive director of the Van Buren Township Downtown Development Authority, sent the Independent a news release last Thursday.
“Interestingly, ‘Expressway’ and ‘Service Drive’ are NOT the official names of the ROADS that run parallel to Interstate 94,” Ireland wrote.
“When the lighted signage was placed on the new traffic mast arms, it was thought that a mistake had been made; however, NO, the signs are in fact correct,” she wrote.
“According to Wayne County, the official names of the ROADs that run just north and south of I-94 are I-94 North Service Road and I-94 South Service Road. Isn’t that interesting?
“If you drive down both Service Drives, with the exception of three road signs at the eastern end of the Township, all the smaller road signs say Service DRIVE.
“When this was brought to the County’s attention, it was indicated that as signs along the North or South Service ROADs becomes unreadable or destroyed, they will be replaced with the correct legal name,” Ireland wrote.
At first, the DDA director announced the “wrong” names on the mast arms would be covered up. But then, she discovered they were the “right” names, after all.