<span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: ‘Lucida Sans’;" class="R~sep~ACopyBody">I leave mail on my box and it’ll stay out there for two days, and I asked the postman one day. I said, “How come you don’t pick up my mail?” He said, “Well, if you don’t have mail coming in, we don’t have to take mail going out.” Is that true?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">U.S. Postal Service Handbook M-41, “City Delivery Carriers Duties and Responsibilities,” says mail carriers must collect outgoing mail from customers, but the provision only applies to stand-alone boxes with raised flags.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“We apologize to our customer for this inconvenience,” said Postal Service spokesman McKinney Boyd.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Collection rules for carriers, as listed in the handbook:</span>

<span style="font-weight: bold;" class="R~sep~ACopyInfoBox">Collection from Customers</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyInfoBox">Accept letters handed to you by customers for mailing, providing that postage is affixed. Go to the porch or door to receive this mail from the customer.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyInfoBox">Collect prepaid letters placed next to, in, or on private mail receptacles when delivery is being made at that point.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyInfoBox">Accept for mailing prepaid small articles; but you may refuse to accept articles when to do so would seriously interfere with your scheduled deliveries or collections.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyInfoBox">Do not accept money for payment of postage except postage due mail, with due stamps or statement attached.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyInfoBox">Motorized carriers: collect from curbside boxes (on your route) letters with postage affixed if the signal flag is raised, even though there is no mail for delivery to that box. …</span>

<span style="font-weight: bold;" class="R~sep~ACopyInfoBox">Handling Collected Mail</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyInfoBox">Do not return collected mail to any customer. Refer the customer to the unit where the mail is deposited.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyInfoBox">Keep mail collected from boxes designated for different levels of service separate at all times (e.g., starred, local delivery, etc.).</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyInfoBox">Face or separate mail as directed and to the extent practicable at the time of collection or while returning to the office. All carriers may be required to face or separate collections on return from their routes if this is the policy of the local management.</span>

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<span style="font-weight: bold;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">Online:</span> <span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">www.usps.com.</span>

<span class="R~sep~AHeadBrief">LC code has provision on barbed wire</span>

<span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: ‘Lucida Sans’;" class="R~sep~ACopyBody">I am a homeowner. I have been having problems with theft. I am wanting to put barbed wire at the top of a wooden fence and at the top of a hurricane fence. Do you know what the law about this type of addition would be?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The reader didn’t say where he lives, so The Informer can’t offer specific information. But it can say that the code of ordinances for the city of Lake Charles includes a restriction on the use of barbed wire.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Section 6-1 of the code: “It shall be unlawful to use or permit the use of barbed wire, which is here defined as ‘wire with many sharp points all along it,’ as either fencing or as a barrier, except barbed wire may be used at the top of fences or barriers made from some other material which are at least six feet in height, and except barbed wire which prior to May 4, 1966 was installed and being used for fence purposes.”</span>

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<span style="font-weight: bold;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">Online:</span> <span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">www.municode.com.</span>

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<span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">The I</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">nform</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">er answers questions from rea</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">ders each Sunday, Monday a</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">nd Wednesday. It is re</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">searched and written by</span> <span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">Andrew Perzo</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">, an</span> <span style="font-style: italic; font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">American Press</span> <span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">staff wri</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">ter. To ask a question, call</span> <span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">494-409</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">8 and leave voice mail, or ema</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">il informer@americanpress.com.</span>