Valley residents make a 30-minute round trip daily to pick up their mail.

GOLD CANYON, Ariz. — A dozen people living in the 55-and-over community outside Apache Junction say they’re fed up with waiting nearly a year for mail delivery to resume in their area.

The homeowners said it all started when the cluster unit was damaged in January and mail stopped being delivered.

Because of this, residents traveled to the Apache Junction Post Office several times a week to receive mail.

“As far as I can tell, there’s no sense of efficiency or care here,” neighbor Chuck Caffaro said. “The Post Office has just been adamant about this.”

What they thought was a temporary solution has now turned into a 10-month ordeal.

“Some people are older and some have driving and access issues and now they have to get out and in, whereas before all they had to do was drive up to the mailbox in their golf cart, reach out and pick up mail. said Mountainbrook Village HOA President Ed Pullen.

The commute to work proved difficult for homeowner Patricia McKay as she was unable to leave the house.

“I had surgery and I couldn’t get to the mailbox, I couldn’t get to the post office,” McKay said. “It was just a terrible, terrible mess.”

Pullen said that after the long delay was brought to his attention last month, it took weeks to hear back from the USPS after contacting the Pinal County offices of Rep. Eli Crane and Sen. Mark Kelly.

“They didn’t even pick up the phone. I have two weeks of constant phone calls,” Pullen said. “Pinal County, which was a hero in this, really helped us a lot, (but we got almost no cooperation from the post office.”

Although the old cluster box had been receiving mail for about two decades, the U.S. Postal Service said the problem with replacing it was getting an approved site that is now ADA compliant.

Two weeks ago, Pinal County and USPS officials met with Pullen and maintenance staff to discuss the project and develop a replacement plan.

The agency says it is now approved and they are designing the site, applying for additional permits and entering into contracts.

“We apologize for the inconvenience to our customers and will complete construction and installation as quickly as possible,” the Postal Service said in a statement.

However, the Postal Service does not have a timeline for installing a new one.

“It’s terrible and I’m sure as we head into the Christmas season at the Post Office, if you’ve ever seen queues at the Post Office at that time, just to get your mail, it’s not a matter of coming and picking up your mail, you’ll stand in line,” Caffaro said. “This line is going to get really bad in December.”

Pinal County released a statement saying, in part, “Our office and Development Services staff continue to work diligently on this issue to get it resolved for the community as quickly as possible.”