Address shuffle is coming

Columbia County residents with Thomson and Harlem addresses soon will move to Appling without leaving their homes.

Complying with the results of a U.S. Postal Service survey, some county residents with a Thomson 30824 or a Harlem 30814 address will switch to an Appling 30802 address.

Residents with an Appling 30802 or Thomson 30824 voted to maintain the status quo rather than switch to a Harlem 30814 address.

County officials, concerned that some Columbia County residents with Thomson addresses could be missing out on some county services, asked the postal service to conduct the survey.

"(The postal service) did this in the most democratic way they knew how," said county Emergency Services Director Pam Tucker, who pushed for the postal survey. "They did their best to try and accommodate everybody."

The surveys went out in November and December to about 500 homeowners, Tucker said. The South Georgia Postal Service, the Macon-based umbrella group overseeing postal service in Columbia County, received 158 survey responses by the January deadline.

To switch addresses, 50 percent of residents sending in surveys had to vote in favor of the change.

In Harlem, 57 deliveries routes on Natures Way, McZilkey Drive, Lonergan Hulme Road and Appling-Harlem Highway will switch to the Appling ZIP code.

Seventy-two deliveries on Bill Dorn, Morris Calloway, Smith Crawford, Cobbham and Dozier roads will change from Thomson to Appling.

The change takes effect June 12.

"Customers should tell their mailers not to use the new address until then," South Georgia Postal Service spokeswoman Donna Ricks said. "If (mailers) should send something to the old address after that date, customers will have a grace period of one year to get all that taken care of. During that grace period, anything sent to the old address will be forwarded to the new address."

Letters explaining the change will go out to affected residents at the end of this week, Ricks said.

Included with the letters will be pre-paid post cards for customers to send to their correspondence.