The Post Office Prophecies
In 1971 (I believe the year was), doing legwork for my very first story on Rappahannock County, I had the honor to interview Jim Bill Fletcher on several occasions. Politically, it was in the waning days of the old “Byrd Machine,” and Fletcher could still be counted upon “to deliver the votes.”
Whether or not he was literally the “county boss” (as many residents claimed), there was no dispute that he knew Rappahannock just about as well as anybody. And I’ll never forget the gist of what he had to say about Post Offices:
Once they get rid of the old country Post Offices, which often double as country stores, you’ll see the disappearance of traditional America. Out in the country, Post Offices are where neighbors run into each other and exchange views even if they don’t like each other. Each encounter is like a civics lesson. Post Offices are rural versions of the public square.
I find this memory resurfacing with news of the planned relocation of the Town of Washington’s Post Office to a brand new building outside of town. The relocation is what the avatar “majority of the community” wants, as communicated to the Post Service decisionmakers through behind-the-scenes, don’t-drainthe-swamp-yet lobbying.
“Be careful what you wish for,” runs the old adage, and I wonder if the “majority of the community” thought through the possible consequences of his/her desire? Here’s one (not totally unlikely?) scenario:
Five years hence, the Rappahannock Board of Supervisors meeting on Feb. 22, after a spirited debate, decides in a 3-2 vote to sell the county offices and courthouse to private business interests. The proceeds will be used to build a new, state-of-the-art county government complex at what’s become known as the Rappahannock strip mall where the bank and new Post Office are already located. (That the BOS meeting is on George Washington’s birthday is, as one observer notes, “ironic, to say the least.”)
“Our employees spend way too much time in their cars driving back and forth conducting county business at the bank and Post Office,” in the words of one supervisor. “In any event, the current historic buildings need repair — which to do it right will cost much more than building big, beautiful walls of brand-new brick to house our operations. Taxpayers are always our first consideration.”