Maine island loses its trash can mail delivery service

SUTTON ISLAND, Maine -- The Postal Service has ended a long tradition in which mail delivered to Maine's small offshore Sutton Island by a private ferry service was left in a specially marked trash can on the island's dock.

Postal Service higher-ups got wind of the practice that served residents of about 25 seasonal homes on Sutton Island. They decided it had to be halted because it provides no security for the mail.

Summer resident Shea Howell says residents will now have to make a two-mile ocean journey to the post office in Northeast Harbor. She says it will now take three hours to get her mail.

Sutton Island is one of five islands that make up the town of Cranberry Isles.