The grand opening of the nation’s 700th Village Post Office, which gives Humboldt County residents more access to common postal products and services, is Monday.
A Village Post Office is now in Scrapper’s Edge in Eureka at 728 Fourth St. and owner Sondra Kirtley said it gives residents who are pressed for time another location to take care of their postal service needs.
Sondra Kirtley stands next to Scrapper’s Edge’s new mail collection box.
“We won’t be offering all services of a regular post office, but we will have the most popular ones such as first class postage,” Kirtley said. “We already offer other businesses services that fit into people’s postal needs nicely. We have a lot of people come here anyway and the new services offer them convenience. We’re all busy people, so anytime we can save money by consolidating time is good. We’re open later on weeknights than the post office and open on Saturdays.”
The idea for Village Post Offices was conceived in 2011, according to U.S. Postal Service spokesman James Wigdel.
“They’re designed to give an extra presence in a community for postal services and products, but they don’t have all the amenities of post offices. For example, they don’t sell money orders, but they can provide priority mail packaging,” Wigdel said. “It absolutely adds another postal service in the community. Not everyone’s schedule fits entirely well with post offices and many Village Post Offices are open longer than normal postal offices.”
Wigdel said the process of opening a new Village Post Office includes the U.S. Postal Service looking at communities and identifying where there might be a need.
“A business development specialist then finds out if the postal service in the area is interested,” Wigdel said. “In this case, we got a lead about the need from a letter carrier in Eureka and the former postmaster went to the Scrapper’s Edge owner who was very receptive about the idea.”
Kirtley said the grand opening is at 2 p.m. at Scrapper’s Edge and there will be cake and refreshments.
For more information about Village Post Offices, visit https://about.usps.com/news/electronic-press-
kits/expandedaccess/vpo-fact-sheet.htm.
via Grand opening of Village Post Office Monday – Times-Standard Online.