Because of budget shortfalls nationally, the post offices in Teton County will no longer look up post office box numbers for parcels bearing only a street address.

Al DeSarro, spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service, said declining revenues are forcing local postal workers to stop what’s been a practice for years. Now, if there is no box number included in an address, the Postal Service will return the package to the sender.

“We try to do these things as a courtesy,” he said. “The Jackson post office workers have been doing this out of the goodness of their hearts.”

But DeSarro said Jackson is one of the towns in which the courtesy practice has become an expensive problem. The post office receives hundreds of packages a day, many of which are delivered through U.S. mail but bear a street address. There is no Postal Service home delivery in Teton County.

“It takes too much time for our postal clerks to continue to do this,” he said. “We are in a major cost-cutting and saving mode.”

To ensure packages are received and not returned to the sender, DeSarro said, residents should make sure addresses have a street address followed by “box number.”

If Web sites don’t allow that, DeSarro said, try adding “box number” to the line that asks for a second address.

Be sure not to write “P.O. Box” or often Web sites or other services will refuse to recognize the address, he said.

“This is actually pretty much policy nationwide,” he said.