Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Boca Raton rallies to keep its downtown post office facility
The U.S. Postal Service wants to move its downtown Boca Raton facility — a plan the city’s officials, residents and businesses are trying to stop.
The city council plans on Monday to vote on a resolution against the move. And the citizens’ group BocaBeautiful.org is circulating a petition to save the post office located directly across from Mizner Park.
“A downtown post office is essential,’’ especially now that the city finally has a busy downtown, said city councilman Scott Singer.
The postal service declined to say why it wanted to move from the 50-plus-year-old facility but said construction of the nearby Tower 155 condo was not a factor. However, work on the tower did force the post office to close from Feb. 5-20.
The Postal Service is asking the community to help find another site at a meeting set for 4:30 p.m. March 29 in the Boca
Raton Community Center across from City Hall.
“We have a commitment to continue service in the downtown area,” said Debra Fetterly, the Postal Service’s strategic communications specialist.
She said window service and post office boxes will remain in the current location until another site is found.
John Gore, president of BocaBeautiful.org, is circulating the petition to save the site.
“We have volunteers collecting the hand-signed petitions and an IT service handling the electronic ones.” he said.
Downtown Alliance president Michael Liss signed it and drafted a letter to his 1,000 members encouraging them to sign.
Attorneys like him need certified mail close by for their legal business, he said. None of the three other post offices in city limits are in walking distance.
This was not the first effort to save the downtown post office.
“Around September 2009, there were rumors and discussions about possible closures of several post offices, including downtown,” said city spokeswoman Chrissy Gibson. “There were handwritten and online petitions that circulated, eventually gathering 2500 signatures that were sent to the Postmaster General.”