KAPOLEI — More than 350 residents in the Villages of Kapolei haven't received a single parcel of mail at their homes since the beginning of this year, and they're not happy about the lack of service.

The homes, which sit on a 52-acre subdivision known as Kaupea, are owned by the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) and were purposely built without home delivery boxes. But residents say that even the promised cluster box units (CBUs) - which the United States Postal Service (USPS) has been adding to new housing developments across the country as a way of slashing growing costs in mail service - aren't an available option at the moment.

As a result, residents like George Furtado and Genevieve Teixeira must make a daily two-mile commute to the Kapolei U.S. Post Office, where they have been assigned "temporary" boxes.

"It's a tough little office to get to," the 61-year-old Furtado explained. "It's really inconvenient to begin with because I have to wait until after hours because there is no parking, and (the P.O. boxes) are not very user-friendly for residents. It's a hassle.

"My postal rates are going up, but my service is going down," he added.

"It's really difficult, especially because I have little ones," added Teixeira, 32. "There's no parking at the post office here in Kapolei, so I pick up my mail maybe once or twice a week.

"I feel really bad for all the elderly and the disabled who can't get to the post office, so I try to pick up mail for some of the elderly," she continued. "It's very hard and frustrating."

According to USPS spokesman Duke Gonzales, the postal service has been communicating with DHHL developers on an agreement as to how the mail would be delivered to the residents of Kaupea.

"There was some question in the beginning whether they would be able to provide the centralized delivery points, so that's why, at this point, there are no delivery points there within the complex," Gonzales explained. "It was really a matter of working it out with the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.

"We're working with the developers to try and identify locations to establish centralized delivery points there, so that we can provide mail delivery to them," he continued. "The last I heard we were sort of waiting for the developers to make a decision as to where their centralized points would be."

A DHHL spokesperson, who asked not to be identified, says the delay in installing the CBUs was due to an inability to agree on the locations.

"We're going to start all over again, but I'm hoping we can agree on the original locations that the postal department had proposed because they were scattered along Kamaaha Avenue on either side, which made sense," the spokesperson said. "I don't know why we never did it, but there it stands. If we went back to the original proposal, and everybody agrees, that'll be real good."

Earlier this year, Furtado and Teixeira sought support on this issue from Sen. Mike Gabbard, who passed the word on to U.S. Congresswoman Mazie Hirono, and have worked with both of them in communicating with the USPS for the past few months.

In spite of this, letters from the USPS stated, "The decision to have CBUs versus home delivery is to balance the needs of our customers with the safety of our employees ...We are currently awaiting the final construction plan and proposed CBU location from DHHL."

"(Hirono) answered the call but was turned away by the postal people with a plan they wanted," Furtado stated. "It didn't faze them one bit. I can't believe things are going to this level over something so simple."

Teixeira made several inquisitive calls to both the USPS and DHHL.

"The post office just brushed me off. They brushed off Mazie Hirono," Teixeira said. "Just to get to talk to somebody was really difficult. I got the runaround from everyone. Hawaiian Home Lands told me it was not their decision and that it was made by the United States post office. The post office said they didn't make the decision. And back and forth.

"It was just the runaround forever, and it still continues," she continued. "Nobody wants to take the responsibility for who made the decision."

A DHHL representative has been communicating with the Waipahu postmaster, who also controls Kapolei, via e-mail for several weeks, asking him to contact DHHL and provide the name of who is in charge of this project, the DHHL spokesperson claimed.

"We don't know who the contact person is, and we're just waiting," the spokesperson stated. "I think the cluster boxes were already delivered in January to the postal people, so it doesn't make sense for them to be lying around.

"It's a matter of we're waiting for the post office to get back to us," the spokesperson added.

In the meantime, residents are becoming quite restless and say they won't quit until their mail is delivered.

"I think generally we should get our home service, and it'll be done," Teixeira stated. "Everyone else has home service, and we pay taxes just like everyone else."

"I won't go away until I get this thing solved. I know that," Furtado echoed. "We're mad enough to do whatever it takes to shine a light on it because it's just not right."

Please contact me if I can help you. My phone is 586-6830 and e-mail is sengabbard@capitol.hawaii.gov. Mahalo for the privilege of serving you!