WHATELY — Residents are voicing varying opinions on the prospect of having only one ZIP code in town.

Gathering for a community forum at Town Hall last week, residents shared their thoughts with town officials, including Select Board Chair Fred Baron, on changing the entire town over to the 01093 ZIP code, which currently only serves the center of Whately through the Post Office on Chestnut Plain Road. The major focus of the change is on the 01073 South Deerfield ZIP code, which serves a large portion of Whately residents who live in neighborhoods like River Road. West Whately uses a separate ZIP code, too, but problems are less common.

Lynn Sibley, a longtime municipal employee who has served as town clerk, treasurer/collector and town administrator, said the use of the South Deerfield ZIP code has caused challenges with mail and package deliveries, excise tax bills, voter registration and several other processes tied to ZIP codes. Sibley and other officials noted a U.S. Postal Service representative was unavailable on Thursday and they will be passing along residents’ questions.

“None of this is a done deal,” she told those at Town Hall. “We thought this might be a good solution.”

One of the biggest challenges, Sibley and other residents said, is for those who live on River Road and have duplicate addresses to people in South Deerfield. For example, Peggy Marshall said she’s become “really good friends” with her River Road counterparts in Deerfield because packages from delivery services often get sent there. Marshall also noted she lived in Leverett in 2003 when it went from four ZIP codes down to one.

“We all changed to 01054 … and there were no issues,” Marshall said. “It’s a smooth process and it can be done.”

Some residents, like Zoning Board of Appeals member Bob Smith, said they worry about the unintended consequences of changing the entire town to one ZIP code, including people having to change mailing and billing addresses for numerous services.

“Sometimes when you fix one thing, it creates 15 new problems,” Smith said. “I am really worried about the ramifications — the things we haven’t thought about yet.”

Treasurer/Collector and former Town Clerk Amy Schrader said there would be a lot of work involved to change addresses, but the town having its own ZIP code creates a sense of identity.

“I cringe every time I stamp an envelope that says ‘South Deerfield,’” she said. “The more and more we give to South Deerfield, the more I get concerned. … We work in Whately, we live in Whately and I’m proud to live in Whately.”

Some people, like Ai Annis, noted these types of delivery and service issues have only recently sprung up. Annis said he’s lived on River Road since 1973 and never had any big issues — he was even able to receive a postcard from Australia in the 1970s — but about five years ago, Comcast shut off his service because his address’ counterpart in Deerfield was trying to set up service.

On the other hand, some residents said they have never had an issue, which Sibley said is why the town wanted to host the community forum. Direct feedback from the people who will be affected by the change is valuable, she said.

Over the town border, at least one Deerfield resident said the change would benefit both communities.

“We have had people and packages misdirected to Whately, not arriving at our South Deerfield home, constantly over the years. We even had an ambulance visit our home by mistake a few years back when they were called to the Whately household with the same street address as ours,” South Deerfield resident Julie Caswell wrote in an email. “This fix to the ZIP codes used would benefit Whately and South Deerfield residents.”

Background and the changing process

ZIP (Zone Improvement Plan) codes were developed by the U.S. Postal Service and introduced in July 1963 as a way to make mail delivery easier. As an internal system to help the USPS manage more than 160 million mailing addresses, ZIP codes are not bound by town borders and are designed with efficiency and costs in mind, according to USPS spokesperson Amy Gibbs.

“Because ZIP codes are often not aligned with municipal boundaries, millions of Americans have mailing addresses in neighboring jurisdictions,” Gibbs wrote in an email, noting that ZIP codes have evolved into more than just a mailing address, as GPS and other services now rely on it. “The Postal Service is aware of the growing use of mailing addresses and ZIP codes for various non-postal purposes and the problems that result from this practice.”

A primary example of a non-postal use is COVID-19 vaccination data. Both Whately and Buckland have extremely low vaccination rates compared to their neighbors because the state collects the data by resident ZIP codes. In Whately’s case, Williamsburg and Deerfield both have vaccination rates greater than 100% and the contrast is even more stark in Buckland, where Shelburne has a nearly 170% vaccination rate.

Gibbs explained the Postal Service has a ZIP code boundary review process it must go through to make any changes, which can be started by a community submitting a letter to its district manager. From there, USPS undertakes a comprehensive review of costs and benefits of the proposed changes.

For Whately, the Select Board will make a decision on if it wants to pursue the change. Anyone with further questions for the Postal Service or with ideas to share with the town should contact Town Clerk Amy Lavallee at townclerk@whately.org or 413-665-4400, ext. 3.

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