Q: When I mail a letter to someone in Janesville by going into the Janesville post office and dropping it in the “Janesville Only” slot, why does it get a Mankato postmark? (Is this good government?)

A: The Postal Service says it is.

All mail sent in southern Minnesota — from the South Dakota border to Albert Lea — is first sent to the Mankato mail-sorting facility, said Dean Farley, a customer service manager with the Postal Service.

It’s the only office with machines that sort the mail into delivery order. That means no fussing about which carrier it goes to or rummaging through a sack looking for the right letter.

That efficiency savings is enough to justify sending a letter mailed from Janesville to Mankato then back to Janesville, Farley said.

So why is there a “Janesville Only” slot at all, if it all goes to Mankato to be sorted?

“That slot is not easy for us to remove,” said Marcia Cleary, Janesville’s postmaster.

Without Mankato’s sorting facility, Janesville would have to hire more staff, she said.

Q: Will we always have to drive through mud and water to get to our homes on Sibley Parkway going under the railroad trestle? How about some drains before it runs under the “bridge.” Really nice for our cars and out-of-town guests — makes the city really impressive.

A: Mankato City Engineer Ken Saffert said the city has put off any permanent improvements to the area until the railroad replaces the trestle, which it owns, with a long-planned new bridge. The trestle was slated to be replaced in 1998, but it got tied in with the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad’s expansion ambitions, he said.

The new roadway won’t have the same path, so costly spending now might be rendered worthless when the railroad replaces the bridge.

Saffert said the change at the trestle was made for safety reasons. The old road was too narrow.

“We did the best we could with what we had,” he said.

Contact Ask Us at The Free Press, P.O. Box 3287, Mankato, MN 56002. Call the newsroom at 344-6397 or e-mail your question to editor@mankato-freepress.com; put Ask Us in the subject line. This Ask Us was compiled by Free Press staff writer Dan Linehan.