Postal service won't fix lobby

Post office changes mind on part of its renovation; Mayor, Emerson say gas station post office is not a solution to Cape's overall post office problem.

After spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for major repairs, the U.S. Postal Service has scrapped plans to modernize the old Cape Girardeau post office's downtown lobby.

The postal service regional office in Denver, Colo., has decided against spending $470,000 to put in new post office boxes and upgrade the customer-service area at the front of the Frederick Street building, said postmaster Mike Keefe.

The postmaster said he's uncertain when retail operations will return to the building at 320 N. Frederick St. They've been in temporary quarters in a Christine Street storefront since March 2004.

But a postal official with the district office in Overland Park, Kan., said Wednesday that the agency still plans to return its retail operation to the old post office by mid-November.

Postal service spokesman Richard Watkins said the goal is to have the retail operation open in time for the mail-heavy Christmas season. Lobby renovations aren't needed to reopen the post office to customers, he said.

Watkins said the postal service, which operates 38,000 post offices and a fleet of 210,000 vehicles nationwide, must hold down costs.

Keefe blamed the cost-cutting on added expenses facing the postal service in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The location of the 40-year-old post office has been at the center of public controversy. City officials and U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson repeatedly asked the postal service to build a new post office in a more centrally located area of the city.

With the westward growth of the city, Kingshighway has become the center of town, officials said.

Emerson urged the postal service Wednesday to find a location for a full-size, stand-alone post office.

"We've demonstrated the need for improved postal services in our community time and time again. It is long past time for action that will bring Cape Girardeau up to par with other cities similar to us in population and area," Emerson said.

Postal officials last month announced plans to establish a post office substation in the Bi-State convenience store at 920 N. Kingshighway. The agency will pay $37,000 annually to the retailer to operate the post office substation.

But Mayor Jay Knudtson said that's no substitute for a stand-alone, centrally located post office with adequate parking. The Frederick Street building has limited parking. Most customers have to jockey for on-street parking spaces.

"I'm terribly disappointed," Knudtson said. "It's not even close to being an answer," he said.

A frustrated Knudtson said he can't get postal officials to respond to his concerns. "I have never felt more powerless in any situation in my reign as mayor," he said.

The postal service moved out of the 18,000-square-foot Frederick Street building last year because of problems with a leaky roof.

In April, the postal service spent $500,000 to purchase the vacant building it formerly rented.

Since then, it's hired contractors to fix the roof and make other basic repairs for about $300,000.

That work is expected to be finished soon. Keefe hopes to move mail carrier operations back into the building within the next few weeks.

The whole process has taken longer than expected. Keefe last April projected a September move-in date. But construction work didn't begin until July.

Nearly two weeks ago, Keefe said the postal service was ready to modernize the post office lobby and customer-service area.

But Watkins said Wednesday that postal officials in the regional office in Denver never approved such plans.

"It was never a done deal," he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123