Maintenance Delays Post Office Opening

BY GARY B. GRAY
BRISTOL HERALD COURIER
BRISTOL, Tenn. – A new post office at 1430 Volunteer Parkway has been only a “few weeks away” from opening for about a year now.

Volunteer Station, which will replace the old Stephen Holston branch, stands ready in the Southgate Shopping Center. At least it looks that way from the outside looking in. 

“You know, I don’t know what’s going on here,” local resident Clyde Godsey said while walking by the new post office on his way to do some shopping. “I’d love for it to be open, because I only live about six blocks away.”

When told that postal officials had said Volunteer Station was supposed to open in a few weeks, Godsey laughed.

“A few weeks – yeah right – they’ve been using that one for a while now,” he said, adding, “And I was a little amused at the sign.”

The new facility’s front door has had a sign taped to it for months with one bold-faced word on it: “Closed.” Underneath, someone has written “Never opened!”
The city issued a certificate of occupancy for the new spot four months ago. But a U.S. Postal Service regional media representative said Monday the sprinkler system is leaking and new phone lines must be tested.

Barring additional snags, the post office could open in “a few weeks,” said David Walton a USPS regional spokesman in Louisville.

“It’s just been sitting there,” he said. “I know you guys have been told, ‘we’re going to open; we’re going to open.’ If I were one of the residents down there, I’d be wondering what’s going on myself.”

Walton said the agency’s Facility Service Office is looking into the matter in an effort to expedite the opening.

“Once they do that, it should be a few weeks,” he said. 

In July 2006, the USPS decided to relocate the Stephen Holston branch rather than close it.

Renovations at the new site began about one year later, and the city made a final inspection last fall.

The local postmaster told the Herald Courier then that Volunteer Station would open in October 2007. That didn’t happen. The new opening date became “before Christmas.” That didn’t happen either.

At the time, construction delays and late equipment arrivals were to blame.

When Christmas came and went, Acting Postmaster Leon Angeles said the new target was the second week in April. But he conceded, “Nobody knows exactly when it will open. I don’t know why and what is taking so long.”

Angeles was the third acting postmaster in a year’s time when that question was posed, but he has since taken another position.

The new postmaster is Barry King, who took over Monday. Telephone calls to him were not returned.

Residents living near the old site have been using the main post office since the Southside branch closed in 2006. 

Before his stint recently ended, Angeles said an increase in business at the Bristol Tennessee/Virginia Main Post Office at 111 Sixth St. was creating an urgency to open Volunteer Station.

The city issued a building permit for the new Volunteer Parkway location last August. The final building inspection was conducted in late September, and a certificate of occupancy was issued Feb. 4, said Karl Cooler, Bristol Tennessee code administrator.

“They’ve had everything they needed to move in on Feb. 4 – at least what they needed from us,” Cooler said. “Usually, if the property is federally owned, they are not required to go by our building and zoning regulations. But we show that Steve Johnson owns that property.”

Johnson, owner of Johnson & Associates, is developing land off Lavender Lane where the Stephen Holston branch had been housed in the Southside Shopping Plaza since 1972.

Telephone messages left at his office Friday and Monday were not returned.

USPS Facility Relocation Regulations, which are posted on the federal agency’s Web site, clearly state the agency is responsible for alerting the community and press should delays such as this occur.

The regulations, which apply to renovated or new offices, explain under the heading “Continuing communication” that “During construction, whether renovation or new construction, the postmaster should keep local officials and the community informed via letters and news releases. The postmaster and other postal officials should plan, conduct, and invite the community and local officials to any grand opening, as appropriate.”

Over the past year, the Herald Courier has received no letters or news releases, and so far, no invitations.
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