The mobile home communities off Isabelle Avenue in Port Orange are full of retirees.

For the longtime residents, getting their mail for the past few decades meant going to their mailbox, which lined the small alleyways behind the homes.

But that all changed this past October.

Letters went out from the Port Orange postmaster, informing people that these access roads have been poorly maintained and are dangerous.

Because of that, centralized boxes were put in the medians.

Paul Gadbois hates them. “We don't ever know when our mail's in. So sometimes I make two or three trips to the mailbox before I find out whether I got mail.”

Bob Henning is the head of the local branch of National Association of Letter Carriers, the union representing mail carriers.

He's already filed a grievance with the postmaster over the move.

Henning admits some of the alleyways are in poor shape, but there's a workaround for that. “They could offer the customers to move their mailboxes to the front of the trailer where there's city-paved streets out there and that would take care of the whole issue.”

Gadbois wouldn't mind that, if given the opportunity. “If it's easier for them to come down the front of the house, that'd be fine with me.”

Another issue the postal service had with the alleys is they sometimes flood.

Roberts Street is one of these thruways where the post office has put up these centralized mailboxes. Those who live in the area said the road floods just as much as the alleyways. And it takes longer to drain.

You will see a few mailboxes in the front though.

If a person has a medical condition that can be confirmed by a doctor, they can get home delivery.

As you might expect, this being a retirement community and all, that's not uncommon.

Henning said whatever time is saved by centralizing delivery, it's lost by the carrier having to make these extra stops.

The postal union's Henning tells us he doesn't expect any ruling on his grievance until well into next year.