Endangered post office is more than just mailboxes

A neighborhood post office isn’t just a place to buy stamps. It’s a nexus of the community that provides a sense of identity-along with a zip code.
So when Locust Grove Town Center owner Ken Dotson learned that the United States Postal Service intended to close down the contract post office at Routes 611 and 20 on April 18, he took up the community’s cause to keep the post office in operation.
Dotson explained at a March 10 Orange County Board of Supervisors meeting that the tiny postal service operation, located within the Exxon station at Locust Grove Town Center, was a relic of days gone by. And, he said, it was also an important feature for the businesses and the residents in the area.
Even more importantly, Dotson said, when a neighborhood hub like a post office shuts down, it can mean the beginning of the end for what was once a close-knit, active and economically viable neighborhood.
“You always wonder how things start dying. You don’t even realize it when one by one, things are getting the life sucked out of them,“ Dotson said.
According to Dotson, back in the early decades of the 20th century, a stand-alone brick and mortar Locust Grove post office sat where The Market is now, right at the crossroads of Route 611 and Route 20. But in the 1970s, Locust Grove’s post office was moved northward to the intersection of routes 3 and 20, right about where the McDonald’s is now.
“The new Locust Grove Post Office kept moving further and further away from Locust Grove,“ Dotson explained. In fact, after it moved down Route 20, and then to Route 3 a few years ago, the present-day Locust Grove Post Office is technically located in Wilderness, not in Locust Grove at all. And about a decade ago, Dotson said the post office at Mine Run closed, leaving those residents without a post office for miles.
When Tiger Fuels leased the Exxon station at Route 611 and Route 20 from Dotson’s company, they also contracted with the postal service to operate a full-service, satellite office within the store.
What that accomplished, Dotson said, was the restoration of a sense of community identity. A place to post parcels or buy money orders in a location central to Mine Run and Locust Grove residents provided more than convenience-it provided cohesion. Losing that core of the community could signal an end to the community identity of the area, he suggested.
The Market at Locust Grove Manager Carol Soaper said locals use the contract post office for the services it offers, but also as a means of socializing. And unlike the anonymity customers might find at a full-fledged post office miles and miles from their homes, Soaper said her customers know her, and she knows them.
“Here, I know everybody’s name that comes in this store,“ she said, “like Patrick here,“ (Soaper gestures to her right), or “Mr. Brackett back there.“ (She waves to a gentleman in the back of the checkout line.)
Soaper said the quantity of mail she processes, and the number of folks who come in for postal services and supplies is enough to keep her, and other staffers, busy. It’s clear that those who rely on Soaper do so not just for convenience sake, but because the short trip to the contract post office is a way to keep in touch with friends and neighbors.
But if Locust Grove’s contract office is closed there are practical ramifications to consider, according to Dotson.
“If we lose our post office, we’re going to have more traffic and more congestion down on Route 20,“ he said, as local businesses-including the 22 located at Locust Grove Town Center-and residents traveled to the Route 3 Locust Grove Post Office.
The price Tiger Fuel is paid by the United States Postal Service to run postal operations at The Market is $1,000 per month for the space and the labor to process mail and packages, and conduct counter services, like selling stamps. Compare that to the United States Postal Service’s cost of a salaried postmaster at as much as $50,000. And Dotson said the contract post office pays for itself, but not by an attractive enough margin, apparently, for the United States Postal Service.
Orange County officials are taking a stand by sending letters to both state and federal legislators for help in keeping the Locust Grove contract post office open.
If citizens want to voice their concerns to the postal service, Dotson said, they can contact USPS Contracting Officer Donna Johnson, at 330 South Parker Road, Suite
400, Aurora, CO, 80014,
or e-mail .