Mail troubles are brewing in the Afton area.
A homeowner in a new subdivision is reporting a roughly yearlong wait for his neighborhood to receive mail service, while nearby Grover residents now travel to Afton to collect mail after their local postal services were closed.
Mark Call, a homeowner in the new Painted Hills Subdivision near Afton, told Cowboy State Daily the lack of mail service is complicating some financial transactions and deliveries.
Call moved into his home Oct. 1, 2025. He said the mailbox unit for the neighborhood was installed sometime between late October and early November that same year. He requested installation of the postal master lock in November.
USPS approved the mailbox unit and its location, he said. But roughly a year later, the master lock is still missing — along with someone authorized to install it.
“I know there’s only one guy who is taking care of all of Wyoming,” Call said. “And he has to come and install the key kit. And I understand that, but my issue is it’s been a year, and that’s kind of not acceptable.”
The U.S. Postal Service said the Afton postmaster is working to get a master lock installed so delivery can begin. The agency apologized for the delay but did not provide an installation date.
USPS spokesperson James Boxrud encouraged customers with concerns to call 1-800-ASK-USPS or leave an after-hours voicemail at 303-853-6185.
“The customer’s concern was recently brought to our attention through our customer contact process,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “We apologize for the delay and appreciate the customer’s patience as we work to resolve this.”
Call said his request dates to November 2025 and that he, his wife and his neighbors have repeatedly contacted postal officials seeking service since then. He said he was told the lock would be installed in early 2026, but the work remains unfinished.
Address Doesn’t Register
While waiting for neighborhood mail service, Call has been paying for a post office box 5.4 miles from his home, about a 10-minute drive away. But that workaround only goes so far.
Some companies he wants to do business with won’t accept a post office box as his address, and their systems won’t recognize his physical address either.
Smaller packages reach his post office box, but a shelving unit he ordered through Amazon never arrived.
One of the companies Call said he has struggled to do business with is Robinhood, a financial-services platform.
Call said he’s supplied his physical address and documentation showing where he lives, but he hasn’t been able to resolve the address-verification problem.
“I have pictures, I have proof, I have my driver’s license that shows the physical address,” he said.
Having a post office box hasn’t solved that issue, either. Call said Robinhood won’t accept the box as a substitute, and its system won’t recognize his residential address as genuine until the post office has made it official.
Two neighboring households are in the same situation, Call added. His neighbors have all approached the post office repeatedly, seeking help to get their service started.
Call said they’ve offered to arrange the necessary lock installation themselves but have been told it must be done by an authorized postal installer. He still has no firm installation date.
Is It Really Temporary?
Boxrud said USPS temporarily moved Grover’s post office box and retail services to Afton starting May 15, after the property owner in Grover chose not to continue the lease for the building.
Residents now collect their mail from cluster boxes outside the Afton Post Office, which Boxrud said are available around the clock.
Boxrud said USPS is evaluating options and that no decision has been made to permanently close the Grover Post Office.
Tom Hepworth of Grover acknowledged that USPS has said the move is temporary. But he has been talking with local postal officials and, based on those conversations, is worried that Grover won't regain its post office.
Boxrud said any permanent change will include community notification and an opportunity for customers to comment.
For Hepworth, the change means driving five miles out of his way just to check for mail. The mailboxes also sit near a back corner of the post office parking lot, where he said a mud puddle often complicates retrieving his mail.
More Than A Post Office
Grover’s postal operation was housed in a country-store building that Hepworth estimates has stood for about 120 years.
Hepworth said the owner previously made accessibility improvements to keep the postal contract but eventually decided to let it go.
Hepworth and his wife own a property that might work as a postal location. He has been trying to decide whether he should offer it to USPS.
An earlier piece of Grover’s postal history is already standing on the property, he added.
“It’s a little white building that used to be the post office in Grover about 80 years ago,” he said. “It stood on the corner by the old church for many, many years.”
Now it’s used for storage.
His grandmother and his wife’s mother both served as postmistresses at that location, he added.
“Between the two of them, the post office has basically been in our relative families for 100 years,” he said.
A post office in a tiny town like Grover is more than a place where people get mail, Hepworth said.
“It’s where you stop and talk to your neighbors, figure out what’s going on in town,” he said. “The post office administration has completely lost sight of the value those facilities bring to these small communities, in my opinion.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
