Update: Resident Says Mail Delivery Stopped to Silver Oaks

Editor's Note: this story was updated at 10 a.m. with an interview from another Silver Oaks resident.

One of the few remaining residents of says the U.S. Postal Service has stopped delivering mail to the complex.

Christine Maxwell was waiting for a package yesterday that, like most of her deliveries from the post office, she was tracking online.

"Yesterday I saw it was on the truck for delivery in the morning, and then only an hour later I got (an online) notification that said ‘No one home, business closed,'" Maxwell said. "When I called (the post office) I was told they were aware of the situation at Silver Oaks, and they had been notified to stop and desist mail."

Maxwell said her online notification also said the mail carrier left a notification tag on her door informing her of the non-delivery. She said there was no such tag on her door, and she said she never saw a mail truck enter the Horning Road complex.

Maxwell, who is on disability financial assistance from the state, does not own a car and cannot drive to the post office across town on Franklin Avenue to pick up her undelivered mail. She said the person she spoke to at the told her they were stopping delivery because fewer than 10 percent of the complex was occupied and because of construction at the site.

"There's no construction on the property," she said.

Dave Mercer, postmaster for the Kent post office, said they will continue to deliver mail to the remaining residents in the 13-acre complex as long as the mail carrier can get to the apartment buildings safely.

"We haven’t stopped delivery out there yet ... Not as long as there's people living there," Mercer said. "Once they start doing whatever they’re going to do out there, that might be a different story."

Mercer said they are working with management of the property to determine that time frame.

Tom Hudak, another of the few remaining residents at Silver Oaks, said he also hasn't gotten any mail delivery this week.

"Yesterday and Monday, as I come in and out I check it," Hudak said. "I thought there’s no reason I should be surprised at that. There’s not a lot of mail coming for me. That would have never dawned on me that something like that would be severed here."

Hudak, who is the only person living in his building, said all the labels on the apartment building's mailbox have been removed — except for his.

Tenants of the retirement complex, which could house more than 200 people, were in July. They had until Saturday, Oct. 1, to move out.

started last week between the attorney for the remaining seniors, Avery Friedman, and attorneys for current owners Tell Real Estate Trust and the firm that plans to buy the complex and turn it into student housing: Capstone Development Corp. between attorneys only on Oct. 11.

Maxwell said she has an extension to stay in her apartment through the end of October 2011.

She said her mail hasn't been delivered since Friday.