STAMP OF DISAPPROVAL

Mayor beseeches Postal Service to open north Fayetteville office 
By DON MICHAEL
Staff Writer

     Expressing strong opposition to the U.S. Postal Service’s recent stance keeping Fayetteville’s newly constructed post 
     office closed to customer service, Mayor Fred Hanna sent a letter Thursday to postal officials and members of the 
     state’s congressional delegation seeking a reversal of the decision.

     A USPS representative said last week the office will open soon for letter-carrier operations but won’t be home to 
     retail service for some time. This was contrary to public hopes of shorter lines at the downtown post office and 
     window service at the north Fayetteville facility as early as this month.

     “If the Joyce Street facility is not to be open to the public, I must protest in the strongest possible terms,” 
     the mayor wrote in a letter to Fayetteville Postmaster Linda Patrick. “I will not hesitate to seek help by any means 
     possible to reverse this arbitrary decision, which is not in the best interest of our citizens.”

     McKinney Boyd, spokesman for the Postal Service’s Arkansas District, said Thursday the USPS’s position on the matter 
     hasn’t changed. 

     He said postal officials continue to pursue feasibility studies to determine if there is customer demand for retail 
     service at the Joyce Boulevard location, which recently cleared inspection and is ready for operation.

     Boyd said the building was built to accommodate retail in anticipation of future growth, but won’t offer the service 
     within this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. No future dates have been explored to open the office, he said.

     “We’re still reviewing,” Boyd reiterated. “Our position remains the same. We continue to review data to show us the 
     need for another retail unit in Fayetteville.”

     But Hanna said he was under the impression such data had already been found, citing a 1998 letter from postal officials 
     stating the Dickson Street office was “inadequate to serve Fayetteville’s future postal needs.” The letter went on to 
     say the USPS wished “to establish another facility which will enhance both the quality of postal services we provide 
     to your community and our employee’s working conditions.” 

     From the letter and further discussions with postal representatives, Hanna said he understood the new facility would 
     mirror the services of its downtown counterpart. The mayor said he has tried to contact the USPS concerning the 
     apparent about-face, but has been unsuccessful.

     “They told us their intention was to open a second full-service post office and leave the one on Dickson Street,” 
     Hanna said Thursday. “And now I hear, through the news media, this is only going to be for carriers.”

     Hanna’s letter was also forwarded to 3rd District Congressman Asa Hutchinson and senators Blanche Lincoln and Tim 
     Hutchinson.

     “If we don’t get a satisfactory explanation, I’m going to ask them to intercede on our behalf, because we need a post 
     office down there,” the mayor explained.

     Both Hanna and Boyd said they’ve gotten considerable response from the public since news of the postal service’s plans 
     surfaced last week.

     “There’s a tremendous amount of input,” Boyd said, “from congressional aides to customers to the mayor’s assistant’s 
     secretary.”

     In its letter two years ago to the mayor, the USPS indicated it was looking at four different locations for the new 
     office, and settled on the northern most option on Joyce Boulevard. Hanna said every indication to city officials — 
     and to the public at large, who is being directed away from the new facility’s doors with a sign proclaiming it’s not 
     open yet — was that the added location would provide nearby service for northern residents while decreasing congestion 
     at the Dickson Street office.

     “That’s what we were led to believe,” Hanna said. “If I’m wrong about that, I want to be told. But I still think we 
     need a post office down there. Springdale doesn’t have nearly the population we have, and they have two full-service 
     post offices.”

Northwest Arkansas Times
July 7, 2000