Ward 5 Councilman Ed Ladouceur has seen mail carriers park their trucks and walk a route, yet U.S. Postal Service personnel are telling him they can’t walk 260 feet to deliver mail to the six residents of Morgan Avenue on Warwick Neck.

That has Ladouceur steaming. It has so frustrated him that he introduced and gained unanimous passage of a City Council resolution calling on the Post Office to provide carrier service to Morgan Street.

He’s not stopping there, either. Ladouceur has contacted the office of Sen. Jack Reed as well as had the resolution forwarded to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and Rep. James Langevin.

As it has been for years, Morgan Avenue residents have their own mailboxes that are located in a cluster at the base of a utility pole on the corner of Morgan and Tiffany avenues. The situation came to Ladouceur’s attention when an 85-year-old homeowner on Morgan, who uses a cane to get around, inquired if she might have mail delivered to her home. That was more than two months ago.

Ladouceur started making calls. He said he talked with Warwick Postmaster Brian Holt, who told him it appeared conditions were too dangerous for carriers to back up, but that he would look further into the matter. Ladouceur said he received a follow-up call from Holt that the current delivery system would have to stay.

Ladouceur was incredulous. Morgan is not a narrow street and, part way down it, the street intersects with Corwin Street, which would allow carriers to park at that corner and reduce their walk to 100 feet or less. Carriers wouldn’t need to turn their trucks around or back them up. A portion of Morgan Avenue where it angles toward Warwick Cove is a dirt road.

“There’s no excuse for these folks to have to come down here,” he said Tuesday morning at the corner of Morgan and Tiffany. “My constituents face more danger coming to get their mail than a carrier faces backing up.”

Joining Ladouceur was Cindy Wilson-Fera, who has lived on Morgan for nine years. Wilson-Fera spoke in favor of Ladouceur’s resolution when it came before the council last month. After moving in, Wilson-Fera inquired about mail delivery and was provided direction by the Post Office on where and how to install a mailbox in front of her house. She went ahead and did the work, only to discover she would have to provide another mailbox up the street at the common location. What’s odd is that when someone fills in for her regular carrier, she sometimes gets mail at the home box.

Apart from the inconvenience of retrieving her mail from down the street, Wilson-Fera points out that the corner location for the community of mailboxes is just where plows pile snow. She said she has had to dig out the boxes not only so she can get to them, but also so carriers can make their drops.

Warwick Postmaster Holt could not be reached for comment, but spokeswoman Christine Dugas said the Post Office is aware of the council resolution and the matter is under review. She said in calculating a carrier’s route, critical considerations are safety and what can be accomplished in eight hours.

Ladouceur found it somewhat ironic that he should be talking about the issue Tuesday morning in the rain.

Referring to the postal creed, “neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds,” Ladouceur asked, “What happened to the mail and it must go through?”