A customer leaves the Brookside Post Office in Redlands on Friday. Postal officials still have not decided on the site’s fate.
The Brookside Post Office in Redlands
REDLANDS >> While the city and its residents await news on the possible closure of the historic Brookside Avenue Post Office, so are local postal officials.
Rumors around town have been swirling that the post office was off the “sale list,” but nothing has yet to be decided.
“The status of the office hasn’t changed,” said Don Smeraldi, communications manager for the USPS’s San Diego office. “In the meantime, the postal service is always looking for ways to become more efficient and save costs and also grow our revenue. We’re concentrating a lot now on growing revenue, and what we mean by that is our share the packaging delivering market which is really growing. We’ve recently improved our tracking capabilities and we’re getting out new technology in our carriers to help improve our tracking.”
One group in town that has been waiting on the edge of its seat for news about the office — the Redlands Historical Museum Association.
Should the Brookside office close, the RHMA has its sights on using the building for its museum that will highlight the city’s treasure and history under one roof.
“We have heard nothing,” said the group’s president Nelda Stuck. “We keep hearing inklings that there will be a move this summer, but we’ve had rumors for two years about the next thing, and we cannot go on anything that has been said. At this stage we have heard nothing concrete.”
USPS officials announced the possible closure of the historic site in March 2012, which is also known as the Redlands Main Post Office, at 201 Brookside Ave.
A study identified the USPS location as an asset whose sale would generate needed capital for the Postal Service, and if closed, operations at Brookside would be moved into its New York Street location at 404 New York St.