Five post offices saved, but one still on block
After years of uncertainty, five neighborhood post offices in Houston have been given reprieves from closure but one station in west Houston’s Energy Corridor remains under review.
The news, revealed by the U.S. Postal Service this week, received a mixed reaction from Memorial Super Neighborhood President Greg Sergesketter, whose communities south of Katy Freeway stand to still lose the Fleetwood Station at 315 Addicks Howell, but learned that the Memorial Park Station on Town and Country — also in his jurisdiction — will be saved.
He said cutting post offices amid west Houston’s booming residential development — and with 90,000 employees in the Energy Corridor — seems counterintuitive.
“We certainly understand the post office is under financial issues, but we also understand you’ve got to look at the community and see if it really makes sense,” he said, speaking as an area resident and not on behalf of the Super Neighborhood. “Is it because the post office is not needed here?”
Sergesketter added that many area residents expressed opposition during a September 2015 meeting with Postal Service officials and later through letters.
“It was bad enough when we were going to lose Town and Country and then they put both on the chopping block,” he said. “We could never get a straight answer. Now we have one off the chopping block and that’s better.”
The Postal Service has been shuttering and moving stations for the last few years in a massive downsizing effort. Possible impacts to several Houston neighborhoods have been looming for more than three years.
Changes put on ice
In 2013, the agency unveiled plans to move or consolidate six Houston stations: Memorial Park at 10505 Town And Country Way; Julius Melcher at 2802 Timmons; Greenbriar at 3740 Greenbriar; University at 1319 Richmond; Medical Center at 7205 Almeda; and Southmore at 4110 Almeda.
USPS spokeswoman Kanickewa “Nikki” Johnson said in a statement this week that Memorial Park, Julius Melcher, Greenbriar, University and Medical Center “are no longer being considered for relocation and, at this time, the Postal Service has no plans to make any changes,” but that “the Fleetwood Station is still being evaluated, but no final decision has been made at this time.”
In 2014, consumers, activists and two Houston members of Congress successfully advocated to spare the Southmore station from relocation.
The USPS, an independent government agency, has been running deficits for years. Annual mail volume has fallen by 60 billion pieces over the last decade, from 213 billion in 2006 to 154 billion in 2016. Besides decreased demand for postal services, the agency is racked by debt fueled by retiree health benefits obligations. In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2016, the Postal Service posted a net loss of $5.6 billion.
Barry McVea has regularly visited the Medical Center station for postage for more than 15 years — including a swing by Friday — but didn’t know about the potential closure.
“I’m glad this location is here. It’s convenient to me,” said McVea, a retired retail manager who now works as a school crossing guard.
Nellie Thompson, a 70-year-old retiree, said she had heard about the possible shutdown, but not the reprieve. She has a post office closer to her home, but prefers the Medical Center station.
“I come here all the time, about six times a month. I get my stamps here,” she said Friday on the way to her car. “You can get in and get out.”
Lack of notice under fire
The Postal Service’s communication with residents, particularly for an organization that could visit almost everyone’s home, has been a sore point with Houstonians. The agency announced its proposed relocations in 2013 not via mailbox notices or visits with homeowners associations and civic clubs, but during a Houston City Council meeting and with posted letters at affected stations.
Susan Thompson has lived in the Memorial Bend neighborhood near Beltway 8 for more than three decades and said Thursday she had no idea the Memorial Park post office had been spared. She saw a posting at the station about the potential closing but no follow-up announcement.
“They never did put a notice there,” she said. “My primary complaint is that they don’t communicate with their own people, much less the neighbors. Something’s wrong there.”
Other busy Houston locations have been moved in the last two years.
The former downtown post office complex at 401 Franklin — built in 1962 and renamed in 1984 for pioneering Houston Congresswoman Barbara Jordan — was sold in 2015 to a developer who had plans for mixed use. The station reopened in a far-smaller remodeled annex on Hadley Street in Midtown.
The Heights post office building at Yale and 11th streets was sold and retail services were moved in 2016 to a nearby annex on 19th Street.