New site sought for post office
Building that was vacated due to mold won’t be reoccupied
The U.S. Postal Service has decided not to reoccupy the post office building at 158 W. Main St. in this town of Esopus hamlet due to mold contamination, according to town Supervisor Shannon Harris.
Harris said Tuesday that a temporary post office could be established in a trailer on a vacant lot at West Stout Avenue and Bowne Street in Port Ewen.
The supervisor said she’s “getting estimates on what it would cost to pave the corner lot” and that the Town Board would have to approve the arrangement.
The trailer would measure 12 by 40 feet and contain about 1,000 P.O. boxes.
The Postal Service stopped using the West Main Street building after its roof leaked in April, and mail addressed to locations in Port Ewen has been handled by the Ulster Park Post Office at 364 Union Center Road, about 4 miles away, ever since.
In the interim, the Postal Service decided not to renew its lease of the Port Ewen building.
“The post office brought in their own people to inspect the place and ... they are no longer in business with the owner,” Harris said.
Postal Service spokesman George Flood said there is no timeline for securing a location for the trailer, but “the bottom line is we want to get in there as quickly as possible.”
“Our facilities folks are right now going through the process,” Flood said. “We’re certainly going to try to locate that trailer in the most convenient spot possible.”
Harris said efforts are continuing to have houseto-house delivery of mail in the hamlets of Port Ewen, Connelly and Sleightsburg but that information about how residents can request the service hasn’t reached enough people.
“It’s an individual household petition to get a change in how they receive their mail,” she said. “There’s no need to vote, and there’s no long list of names on a petition to demand that we wholesale move to foot delivery.”
Flood said the Postal Service is working to determine whether home delivery can be provided in densely populated residential areas.
“There’s a process to follow,” he said. “They [individual residents] have to apply, and the Postal Service would take a look at it to see if it would be the best way to provide service to the community.”
Harris said people interested in home delivery should print and fill out the form at about.usps.com/ forms/ps4027.pdf and bring it to the Ulster Park Post Office.