VERO BEACH — Apparently, we’re supposed to believe what happened last Thursday was all just a mix-up – that the local postmaster mistakenly posted signs saying the downtown Vero Beach Post Office was closing in September.
We’re supposed to believe the local postmaster did this without being told to do so or, at the very least, without first checking with his bosses.
We’re supposed to believe what the sign should’ve said was: The commercial mailing operation is being moved to the Kmart Plaza location.
But should we?
True, the signs were taken down Friday afternoon, after the Vero Beach postmaster and U.S. Postal Service folks were pelted with a barrage of phone calls from concerned residents and local media types.
Dallas-based USPS spokeswoman Arlene Sanchez said, “The fliers were posted in error,” blamed the local “staff” for the blunder and said the downtown Post Office is “not closing.”
In addition, Vero Beach City Manager Jim O’Connor told me he and the USPS recently negotiated and agreed on a new, five-year lease for the downtown property.
“As far as we’re concerned, it’s a done deal,” O’Connor said, adding that he was surprised when first told of the alarming signs posted on the doors on the outside of the building.
“Both sides agreed to the terms and conditions of the lease, the City Council approved it and it’s scheduled to go into effect in October.
“I’d think that, if the people I was negotiating with knew the Post Office was closing, they would’ve told us.”
So maybe that’s all it was – a mix-up, an innocent mistake, a misunderstanding on the part of the local postmaster.
Or maybe it wasn’t.
Maybe the local postmaster did exactly what he was instructed to do, but simply did so earlier than he was supposed to.
Why do I believe such a scenario is possible? Why do I think someone might not be telling us everything we need to know? Why do I remain suspicious?
Because the USPS already has targeted our downtown Post Office as a candidate for closure.
In an email Sanchez sent Friday, she said the USPS is in the “preliminary stages of considering” the relocation of the retail services currently provided at the downtown station to a nearby site.
She then added, “It is too premature to discuss any closing at this time.”
Her email was a follow-up to our phone conversation in which she made no reference to the USPS’s new lease with the city, confirmed that the “bulk mail operation” was moving to the Kmart Plaza on U.S. 1 and said, “Everything else, at this point, is up in the air.”
Does that sound like a firm commitment to our downtown Post Office?
Sanchez not only explained in painful detail why the USPS has been forced to close stations – “Nationally, first class mailings are down 50 percent, so the volume has diminished significantly,” she said – but she smoothly transitioned into the closure process.
“Before we close and relocate services at a station, we would solicit input from the community and local officials,” she said. “We wouldn’t just shut it down without giving notice.”
Let’s hope not.
Better yet: Let’s hope it’s not too late.
“I’d hate to see the Post Office closed,” said Eric Hessler, president of Main Street Vero Beach, which promotes the downtown area. “From a business standpoint, it brings so much traffic to the area every day.
“But even beyond that, the Post Office has been there for so many years, it gives you a feeling of continuity,” he added. “It’s not just the focal point of the area, something that draws people downtown, it’s part of the Mayberry-like feel you get when you come here.
“It belongs downtown.”
Indian River County historian Ruth Stanbridge echoed Hessler’s sentiments about the community’s nostalgic connection to the downtown station, saying, “In small towns like this, that’s where you expect the Post Office to be.”
Stanbridge said the downtown Post Office has been in the same location – 2050 13th Avenue – since the late 1960s, when it moved from 14th Avenue.
And, clearly, more than a few of us don’t want to see it shuttered.
“People have been calling all morning,” O’Connor said Friday before the signs were removed.
O’Connor said he spent more than three months negotiating a new, five-year lease for the downtown property with the USPS’s real-estate representatives, CBRE Global Corporate Services, whose representatives signed the agreement.
The current lease requires the USPS to pay the city roughly $15,000 per year in rent. Under the new contract, which is scheduled to take effect Oct. 1, the rent soars to nearly $121,000 annually.
The new deal also includes a renewal option for another five years at $131,000 annually if, in 2020, the USPS still wants to stay downtown.
“I really don’t know what happened with those signs going up, and I haven’t been able to get any good answers as to why,” O’Connor said. “I’ve contacted the people I negotiated with, and they didn’t know anything about it.
“It’s possible the local postmaster saw that the existing lease was expiring in a couple of months and wasn’t aware of the new one,” he added. “It’s possible there was some confusion over the bulk mail relocation. Either way, it had to be a local decision.”
Just so you know, I called the local postmaster – twice.
The first time, on Friday, he identified himself as “Brian” and said, “We’re still in the process of finalizing things,” then told me to call USPS.
The second time, on Monday, he again identified himself as “Brian” and said, “The signs were taken down.”
When I asked for his reaction to the USPS placing the blame for the signs on him and his staff, he replied, “Whatever they told you, that’s it. I can’t speak to the media.”
So as much as we’re supposed to believe what the USPS folks are telling us about those now-you-see-them, now-you-don’t closing signs at our downtown Post Office, there’s still too much about this story that doesn’t feel right.
If this truly was nothing more than a mix-up – and they want to remove any public suspicion – they should tell us who did it and why.
Shouldn’t they?
