PEABODY — Bill and Katie Tracia just want their mail.
The couple have lived at 47 Bay State Road since 2001, welcomed two children there and added on twice to the 3,000-square-foot home in a sleepy South Peabody neighborhood on the Lynn line.
But a numbering change to addresses, done long before the Tracias moved in, has caused present-day problems.
They have asked the city to intervene. In the meantime, their relationship with neighbor Elaine Velentzas has soured.
"We've been battling this for more than three years," Bill Tracia said. "It's just turned into one big mess."
In the mid-1970s, an address change switched the numbers along their side of the street from 43, 45 and 47 to 43, 47A and 47, according to city and county records.
About three years ago, the Tracias asked the city to return the original numbering scheme to reduce confusion to their visitors, postal workers and public safety personnel.
Velentzas, who lives at 47A, would be forced to renumber her house. The request has fueled a neighbors’ feud.
Both neighbors have criminal complaints against each other because of property clashes. They’ve also hired attorneys to settle the matter. In the meantime, they avoid all interaction.
Velentzas’ attorney, Marianne Pantelakis, said the change would complicate life for her client.
“She’d have to change all kinds of documents,” Pantelakis said.
Velentzas doesn’t know of any problem with deliveries or public safety, her attorney said.
The move
The Tracias said they were married in the neighborhood, in a friend’s backyard. Soon, they fell in love with their home on Bay State Road, which looked into their friend’s yard.
The Tracias didn’t consider the address number. Why would they? they asked.
“The neighborhood is great,” Katie Tracia said. “There are a lot of younger kids.”
After they moved in, they started getting some of their neighbor’s mail and she got theirs. They’d just exchange it, the Tracias said.
In time, they realized the numbering was more than a nuisance.
One day, when Katie Tracia was at home visiting with her parents, a contractor charged right into the house. He had mistaken the address, she said.
“That’s a huge thing, especially with the kids,” Katie Tracia said.
Her husband’s company sent an edible gift when their daughter was born. The gift rotted on their neighbor’s back stoop because no one knew to look for it, the Tracias said.
Katie Tracia said she often watches out the window for deliveries to be sure she gets her packages.
“I feel like I stalk the FedEx and UPS man,” she said.
The Tracias said they never got some credit card statements, missed paying bills and faced increased interest rates. They worry their credit rating could suffer.
“We can’t prove that she’s throwing mail away, but we don’t get stuff,” Katie Tracia said.
Postal and other deliveries have been so spotty, they don’t order magazines and routinely have ordered goods dropped off with relatives.
“It’s just an inconvenience all around,” Bill Tracia said.
He also said he worked as an emergency responder and worried that public safety personnel could arrive to the wrong house during an emergency.
Remedy
About three years ago, Bill Tracia asked former Building Inspector Ralph Gandolfo to change the addresses. Gandolfo agreed and, in a letter, asked Velentzas to renumber her house to 45.
Bill Tracia said his neighbor didn’t make the change. Last fall, he asked the city to make the request again.
Current Building Inspector Kevin Goggin asked Velentzas by letter to consider the switch from 47A to 45.
“Our biggest reason for wanting to do this is for emergency reasons,” he wrote.
But to their surprise, the Tracias received a letter dated July 14 from Goggin, reversing his previous decision.
Goggin, in the letter, said he spoke further to public safety personnel and the postal service and concluded the numbering wasn’t a problem.
“I thought it was settled,” Bill Tracia said.
The day he received Goggin’s letter, he also found mail for Velentzas in his mailbox, Bill Tracia said.
He and his wife plan to take their request to the city’s Board of Appeals, which can overrule Goggin’s decision.
Pantelakis said she hoped the neighbors could reach some negotiation. The attorney said the city ruled in Velentzas’ favor.
The attorney didn’t want the troubles to escalate.
“Next-door neighbors have to live side by side,” Pantelakis said.
