NORTHWEST ARKANSAS TIMES July 13, 2000 New facility to offer public retail service next month By MAYLON T. RICE, DON MICHAEL and MATT WAGNER Staff Writers Amid a whirlwind of complaints from residents and government officials concerned a $2.7 million post office in north Fayetteville would become a mere decoration along Joyce Boulevard, the U.S. Postal Service announced Wednesday the facility will be open for service Aug. 21. In an about-face from its previous stance delaying the opening of the office until next fiscal year, the USPS has determined there is a need for retail postal service other than that provided in Springdale and downtown Fayetteville. McKinney Boyd, who told the Times two weeks ago customer surveys were under way to determine if another retail outlet was financially feasible, said Wednesday the studies were complete and indicated excessively long waits at surrounding offices. We felt it was necessary to relieve that congestion, he said. News of the earlier open date trickled out of Washington Wednesday morning, elating officials who had publicly lobbied for the office’s immediate use. U.S. Sen. Tim Hutchinson who fired off a letter to U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, the ranking Republican controlling committee oversight of the USPS declared Wednesday the process works. It’s not always pretty, but this is the way that it works on Capitol Hill, he said. When I wrote to Sen. Cochran, we were serious about seeing that what was planned came about. Hutchinson’s letter and phone calls paid off Wednesday when Bill Waldemayer, Arkansas District Manager for the USPS, notified him the new post office will open with full customer service next month. U.S. Rep. Asa Hutchinson, who contacted U.S. Postmaster General William Henderson about the matter Tuesday after he was alerted to the situation by Fayetteville Mayor Fred Hanna, said Wednesday he was very pleased with the sudden turnabout. I am pleased because when we started working on this project, the Postal Service said the opening was some unknown point down the road, Rep. Hutchinson said. And now for them to respond and have a firm date to open the facility and it is about as early as can be expected that’s wonderful. Sen. Hutchinson attributed the service’s earlier arrival, in large part, to a stern letter Hanna sent to postal officials and members of Arkansas’ congressional delegation, expressing strong disagreement with the delayed opening. I’ve worked for many years with local leaders and the Postal Service to see this facility constructed, Hutchinson said. Mayor Hanna deserves special praise for his vocal role in ensuring that this facility serves customers, not just as a mail transfer station. In his letter, the mayor stated Fayetteville officials were led to believe the facility would be full-service and that its need was well-established prior to the building’s construction. "What scared me was, they said it was budgetary reasons for the fiscal year and that they would reevaluate it next year," Hanna said. "We need it now. Actually, we needed it about 10 years ago." Located at 1590 E. Joyce Blvd., the facility will open with three window clerks and a post-office box clerk, but numbers are still being added to 1,902 P.O. boxes, Boyd said. Employees, who will be transferred from within the Postal Service, will be trained in the coming weeks. Alderman Trent Trumbo, who represents Ward 3 residents who are expected to benefit most from the service, said he received several calls from constituents expecting retail postal service as early as this summer. "It’s a necessity for the growth of our city," Trumbo said of the new post office. "It was ludicrous they would not open that facility up for retail traffic. It’s a first-class facility, and it’s taxpayer money." Boyd said last week there had been a "tremendous response" to the USPS’s decision, a fact Rep. Hutchinson said might have been the pivotal point in the opening of the vacant building. "It is the kind of thing that citizens can win with their government, because it is the right thing to do." The new post office on Joyce Boulevard in Fayetteville will open with full customer service Aug. 21, the U.S. Postal Service announced Wednesday. EDITORIAL People spoke, government reacted Wednesday’s announcement that the new post office on Joyce Boulevard will open next month with full customer service was an outstanding example of the power of the public’s voice. And the role of government officials like Fayetteville Mayor Fred Hanna, U.S. Sen. Tim Hutchinson and U.S. Rep. Asa Hutchinson in seeing that the necessary change was effected, demonstrates the willingness of elected officials to respond to citizen need. Two weeks ago, the United States Postal Service was adamant that budgetary constraints were going to prevent the beautiful new post office that has been built on Joyce Boulevard from being opened for anything other transferring mail. The USPS officials proclaimed that they had to do a needs survey to determine if retail operations were really needed at the new $2.7 million post office. Thankfully, the residents of Fayetteville rose up in anger and disbelief, writing letters to the editor, to the Postal Service and to the Hutchinsons, explaining just how betrayed they felt. After all, the residents know first-hand that the post office open on Dickson Street is not adequate to meet the needs of our growing population. They’ve waited in the long lines for parking and service at the existing facility and paid the extra fees for the added convenience of going to less crowded, more accessible commercial shipping businesses. Mayor Hanna did not turn a deaf ear to the people’s outrage. He was as irate as they were and protested right along with citizens in disbelief that the Postal Service, which had led Fayetteville officials to believe the new post office would open with full customer service, had decided it didn’t have the money to fulfill its promise and obligation to the residents. In a stern letter calling for Rep. Hutchinson to put his political ties in Washington to work, the mayor told the congressman that the need for the full-service postal facility was established long before ground was ever broken to build the new post office. In fact, he said on Wednesday, the need for a new post office had been evident for 10 years. Rep. Hutchinson, having received a few calls about the matter himself, was happy to go to work on the citizens’ behalf, as was his older brother, who fired off a letter to fellow Republican senator Thad Cochran, head of a committee overseeing the USPS, demanding that something be done to open the post office on Joyce Boulevard. Two days later, Hutchinson’s office received word that all the necessary surveys had mysteriously been completed and the much-needed post office would be open to residents Aug. 21. This announcement proves that when the process works, the people are heard and common sense and reason prevail. Thanks go to the people for speaking out and to the officials they elected for listening and responding and using the political elbow grease needed to get the job done. THE MORNING NEWS July 13, 2000 Postal representatives expect window service to be available when Fayetteville facility opens Charlie Alison, The Morning News The U.S. Postal Service plans to open its north Fayetteville station Aug. 21, complete with post-office boxes and window service, representatives said Wednesday. Public officials from the city mayor to a U.S. senator had been worried the new station would not serve the public but rather be used just as a distribution point for mail carriers. The station will have 14 or 15 carriers who operate out of it, but three postal workers also will serve as window clerks, and one will take care of the more than 1,900 post-office boxes at the new $2.7 million building at 1590 E. Joyce St., according to McKinney Boyd, a regional spokesman for the Postal Service. Boyd said that the Postal Service had studied whether the station needed to be full service and had concluded that it did, based on the volume of business at Fayetteville’s existing post office on Dickson Street and Springdale’s post office on Holcomb Street as well as the distance that customers near Joyce would have to travel to either of those post offices. "We apologize for any inconvenience to the customers of Northwest Arkansas," Boyd said, "but sometimes planning takes a little while." He said that such small things as getting post-office boxes labeled properly take time and planning. "In any business that is opening an additional office, you have to work out details," he said. "We certainly don’t want to open up in an incomplete fashion." Mayor Fred Hanna last week sent a letter to Fayetteville Postmaster Linda Patrick, as well as the Arkansas congressional delegation, in which he objected to the concept that the new Joyce Street facility might not be open to the public. Hanna promised to enlist whatever help he could to make sure the Joyce Street station had public service, including Rep. Asa Hutchinson, R-3rd District, and Sen. Tim Hutchinson, R-Ark. Sen. Hutchinson sent out a news release Wednesday saying Hanna deserved special praise for his vocal role in ensuring that this facility serves customers. Congress, however, had removed itself from administration of the Postal Service in 1971, setting up an independent corporation under the executive branch and administered by an independent board. Boyd said that public clamor had not affected the U.S. Postal Service’s decision to offer window service. The new postal station had planned to have public service from the beginning. "That was part of the study we were doing," Boyd said Wednesday. "(Taking time for the study) was never an indication that we would not open, just when." He said the Postal Service wanted to have the station open by the beginning of its fiscal year, which begins Sept. 1.