KEENE VALLEY - Mail services might be restored to this hamlet, at the Keene Central School.
If this comes together, the school would set aside a room for the "contract postal unit," but others would staff and run it. Henrietta Jordan, a member of an informal committee that has been looking at the community's options since the post office here closed in November, said she has talked to two people in Keene Valley who might be interested in operating the CPU.
The U.S. Postal Service set a June 15 application deadline, which Jordan said Friday she thinks could be met. An architect has already drawn a sketch plan of how Room 111 at the school could be fitted to accommodate mailboxes and a retail counter.
A CPU is run by private individuals, not Postal Service employees, but like a post office, it's a place where people can pick up their mail and buy postal products. Its operators make money from a commission on sales.
The Keene Community Trust hosted a public meeting on Keene Valley's postal service at the school Thursday evening. The 12-year-old community group would assist in the CPU application, Jordan said, and also with fundraising to get it started, if it is approved. Jordan said the Postal Service might provide equipment, but there would be installation costs.
If a CPU doesn't come together or the Postal Service doesn't approve it, the Postal Service will "explore the options to provide possible services," according to a letter Keene town Supervisor Bill Ferebee received from Margaret Pepe, manager of marketing and customer relations for the Albany branch of USPS.
Twenty-six people attended last week's meeting, Jordan said. After a "lively discussion," all but one of them voted in favor of the CPU at the school as the preferred option.
The other possibilities discussed were a centralized array of cluster boxes and retrofitting an existing building, such as a retail operation with upstairs apartments, as a CPU. Jordan said this last possibility was rejected because it would take too long to set up.
Pepe's letter does mention establishing "centralized deliveries" - i.e., a centralized array of boxes - as an option to preserve Keene Valley's postal identity and ZIP code. Ferebee said this is "not a solution to our problem." There had been discussion of locating these boxes either at the school or at the town parking lot on state Route 73.
Ferebee has been critical of the Postal Service, saying it has not communicated with town officials during the closure process.
"The post office plays a huge role in our small towns," Ferebee told the Enterprise. "It's a gathering place; it's a water cooler. It's where families discuss issues, town issues are discussed. It's just a vital part of our towns. I don't feel the folks in decision-making realize the impact that has."
Ferebee introduced a resolution at the Ways and Means Committee meeting of the Essex County Board of Supervisors last week, calling on the Postal Service to communicate with towns better. It passed unanimously, and several supervisors shared similar stories.
A post office in the town of Westport closed several years ago. The post office held a public meeting before closing it, but Westport Supervisor Dan Connell said he felt the meeting was meaningless.
"The decision is made before they come to you," Connell said.
The Postal Service is considering closing another post office in Port Kent in the town of Chesterfield.
"I heard about the public meeting through the grapevine," said Chesterfield Supervisor Gerald Morrow. "I didn't get a notice."
Board of Supervisors Chairman Randy Douglas of Jay said he has talked to U.S. Rep. Bill Owens about the issue numerous times. Douglas said more small-town post offices could close in coming years as postmasters retire and USPS decides not to replace them.
"We're all at risk here," Douglas said.