WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ... CENTERTON’S NEW POST OFFICE : City’s post office needs soon to be remedied
Posted on Monday, May 5, 2008
CENTERTON - People in the fastgrowing city of Centerton have been feeling the need for a larger post office facility for years. Indeed, some were eagerly anticipating the start of development at the planned site of a new post office facility - it is now to be at 100 Monroe St. - for all of the 21 st century.
In 2001, it was announced that Centerton's new post office and about 800 other planned facilities around the U. S. were being put on hold. A loss of $ 2 billion to $ 3 billion prompted the U. S. Postal Service to freeze its plans for new facilities then. USPS management was also trying to significantly reduce administrative staffing to control costs.
Then, the Postal Service's costs were increasing at a rate that exceeded mail volume and revenue growth, according to a 2001 press release. Wage-rate increases exceeding the rate of inflation, escalating fuel costs, changes in the type of mail being processed, and other fiscal challenges the organization faced led to the required pause in construction, USPS regional spokesman Sam Bolen said in 2001.
Many people think the post office is government subsidized. The truth is, it once was, but now it's not, Bolen said in 2001. "Our rates and fees have to cover all our costs. We're not tax-supported anymore," he said.
By 2005, a new Centerton Post Office again appeared to be closer to becoming a reality, as the city's continued rapid population growth put it near the top of a short list of locations across the country in line for a new post office.
U. S. Postal Service representatives from district headquarters in Dallas came to Centerton and said then the city might get a new post office in about a year.
The current Centerton post office has far outgrown its region, and mail going to and from the city is now processed in Bentonville, the officials said in 2005.
The new building would replace the 1, 375-square-foot building, built in 1988, that serves as the city's post office. Two rural routes operate out of the existing facility, Kathy Bjurman, real estate specialist for the U. S. Postal Service, said in 2005.
A third route will be added to accommodate the city's growth and the new facility will also include more parking spaces -18 customer spaces, plus one handicapped space - and will be designed to handle 10 years of projected growth in the city, she said then.
"With your phenomenal growth in the city, we are going to need to put in a new post office. The program is not completely approved by our headquarters, but we want to get the ball rolling so when we get final approval, we will be ready," she said then.
But it didn't work out that way.
On Aug. 28, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the southern coast of the United States with particularly devastating effect in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. It was reported that more then 1, 800 people lost there lives, and more then $ 81 billion dollars in damages occurred, the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services Web site says.
Centerton's planned new post office was of the projects the government postponed to deal with Katrina-related matters, Centerton Planning Director Lorene Taul recalled recently.
"We've needed a larger post office for a long time. It's been a long time coming. They were moving along with it and then... Hurricane Katrina. And they put everything on hold and focused their attention on that area," she said.
Efforts to assist those effected by Hurricane Katrina still continue, the Web site says.
But, whatever became of the planned new Centerton Post Office project ?
It is alive and well, and this week there will be a step toward construction on a nearly 5, 000-square-foot new post office facility in Centerton, a U. S. Postal Service representative said April 24.
Sometime during the week that began Monday, April 28," there will be a preconstruction meeting that will be held with the successful offer - that means the person that will be given - the company that offered to build the facility, they will be issued a notice to proceed with the construction contract," said Leisa Tolliver-Gay, customer relations for the Arkansas district of the Postal Service, which takes in the entire state.
Sealed bids are used and it won't be known before the meeting, which is in Little Rock, which company will get the nod, she said.
"When they're issued that notice to proceed with the construction contract, then they will begin the construction," Tolliver-Gay said.
"It will be a postal-owned facility, not a leased facility, on postal-owned property. And the address is going to be 100 Monroe Street. And the size of the facility is 4, 830 square feet, and it will house the retail operation and the delivery operation for the Centerton community," she said.
"Retail is the window where people come in and buy stamps, and delivery is delivery.... We offer the same products at all of our facilities, but there will be more room. The carriers will be in that facility and then there will be more lobby room and more P. O. boxes," she said.
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