Susie Brooks of Cuba, Ala., says actually getting her mail is a challenge.

"Sometimes the mail is opened. Sometimes it's not there," said Brooks, who lives on Jarman Road.

Like mailboxes for two other houses along Jarman Road, Brooks' mailbox is located a mile and a half away along a main road.

"That's why these mailboxes won't close. They've been beat up," she said.

Residents say the postal service has been delivering mail to them this way for decades. In recent years they say they've asked the postal service to start delivering mail to their houses.

However, in a response to one of the resident's request two years ago, postal officials said that delivering on Jarman Road would require a left turn and when possible the postal service avoids left turns for safety reasons.

Also, postal officials said the road is "too narrow in spots", and at the time, that the county commission had not committed to making necessary improvements or maintaining the road.

Residents say it seems that the county is not the problem.

"I talked to the county commissioner, who is Ben Walker. He had his engineer drop a letter asking the postal service specific questions on what the county needs to do so that it is safe enough for them to come in here and they have not responded to them," said resident Norbert Portis. "That was a year ago. It makes me feel as if they're blowing us off."

As of Friday, county officials say they had not heard from the postal service.

Residents of Jarman Road say the current arrangement is extremely dangerous for them. With mailboxes located in an area coming out of a curve they say when driving they have to pull off the side of the road and walk to their mailbox or else park on the other side of the road and cross the main roadway to get their mail.

"I don't understand how you can't deliver mail to people here in America and mail is being delivered to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan."

With at least one of the affected residents almost 100-years-old and requiring around the clock care, some concerned citizens told Newscenter 11 moving the mailboxes is a necessity.

When contacted by Newscenter 11, postal officials apologized for not responding more quickly to Sumter County's questions, and that they are looking into the request for a change in mail delivery.