WATERLOO - When Kathy Zeets found out the mail drop box in front of U.S. Bank downtown would be removed, she called the U.S. Postal Service office in Waterloo to ask why.

Because there are several other mail drop boxes nearby that can handle the mail, she was told.

Then Zeets, the assistant branch manager of the bank, at 425 Cedar St., tried to negotiate a compromise. Couldn't they remove one of those other boxes instead?

To no avail. The Post Office removed that mailbox, along with six others downtown, last week. Fourteen mailboxes remain downtown.

"It obviously was a convenience," Zeets said of having the mailbox. The bank used it to mail items they considered important enough to go out right away, rather than through their corporate office. She also used it for personal mail. "I don't know, I guess it's kind of a sign of the times. Everyone's cutting costs."

"People take a lot of ownership over these collection boxes, I can tell you," said Greg Barnes, Waterloo postmaster. "I think a lot of it is, people don't realize where all the drop boxes are located."

The removals are part of a Post Office review of its collection practices to put the boxes where they're most needed.

"We constantly look at our collection processes," Barnes said. "This office has not done an actual review in a number of years."

Overall, the Post Office removed 15 mailboxes from locations in Waterloo. Three of those were simply moved to another location.

That's what happened to the mail drop box in front of Kmart, on University Avenue. It moved next door, to Hy-Vee, Barnes said. One reason for the move was that Hy-Vee had more traffic to justify the mailbox.

Another reason is that, since Hy-Vee stores are contract stations to sell stamps and post mail, "it only seemed to make sense to us to look at putting collection boxes" there, Barnes said.

Another mailbox was removed some time ago from Falls Avenue. That mailbox collected less than the 25 pieces of mail a day needed to keep it in place, Barnes said.

Downtown, the proximity of other mailboxes, not the volume of mail, was the main reason behind the removals.

"Some of the boxes we eliminated, they were in eyeshot of other boxes," Barnes said.

There may be another change to the Post Office's mail collection. Barnes said the collection times at mail drop boxes around Waterloo could be bumped up, possibly as early as 3 p.m. downtown (as opposed to 5 p.m. as it is now for some boxes). Because the Waterloo Post Office receives mail from other communities, like Mason City and Waverly, it would be more efficient to get the metro mail into the Post Office building by 5 p.m., ahead of the rest.

No decision on collection times has been made.

Sharon Vander Kolk, the administrative assistant for the RJ McElroy Trust, really misses the mailbox at 425 Cedar St. The McElroy Trust is on the bank's third floor.

"It makes it tough. We're spoiled. First the mail was inside the bank. then they moved the box. Now they've completely moved it altogether," she said.

Vander Kolk said she used the mailbox plenty, sometimes two or three boxes of mail a day. To get that much mail to the nearest drop box, she would have to drive, so she might as well drive the extra couple of blocks to get to the Post Office on Sycamore Street.

She was told she could give the outgoing mail to the letter carrier who comes by the office every day to deliver mail.

"If you can have it done in time when the mailman comes in the morning, that's great," Vander Kolk said. "But it's not always possible when you have mass mailings to do."

She predicted that removing the mailbox, which she said many people in that area used, will result, not in a cost savings for the Post Office, but in more people using e-mail instead. She didn't think the McElroy Trust would be one of them, however.

"It's going to take some time to get used to," Vander Kolk said. "I'm sure we will. But it's like anything else - we don't like change."

Contact Jeff Wilford at (319) 291-1423 or jeff.wilford@wcfcourier.com.