The possible closure of the post office in downtown Columbus has led some community members to think about how to save it and others to ponder what the space could be used for in the future.
In late July, the U.S. Postal Service, facing declining revenues and spiraling debt, announced plans to study closing the doors of nearly 3,653 locations nationwide. Sixty-one of those post offices are in Mississippi, including the historic post office in Columbus, which has stood sentinel at 524 Main St. since 1939.
USPS declared an $8.5-billion loss in revenue last year and is currently studying 300 of the potential closure sites further, but Columbus is not on that list.
Jim Davidson, a board member with the Lowndes Community Foundation — a non-profit organization founded in 1992 — said Thursday morning that he was “alarmed” when he saw the post office on the potential closure list, but sees no organized effort to prevent the closure from happening or make the USPS aware of what the building means to the community.
With First Baptist Church planning to relocate from downtown also, Davidson said a vacant post office would leave “a hole” in downtown. He said the Foundation would like to see an organized community effort, perhaps involving the Columbus City Council, Lowndes County Board of Supervisors and other organizations to attempt to keep it open.
“(The Foundation) just thought maybe the post office could be dissuaded from closing this one,” Davidson said. “Nobody disputes that the post office is in trouble … I’m just surmising that they’ve not looked at it to determine how historically significant it is.”
He said he goes there every day to check his mail, and he would be willing to give up Saturday service — a solution President Barack Obama recently proposed — in order to keep the post office in operation. He dismissed current ideas about other uses, saying he wants to focus on efforts to save it instead.
“I don’t want to think about it being closed,” Davidson said. “I’m afraid if we wait much longer, we’re going to miss a window of opportunity.”
The Columbus Historic Preservation Commission had voted 5-0 at its last meeting to send a memo to the Columbus City Council encouraging them to review the issue, but Ward 3 Councilman Charlie Box said Thursday morning that he was not aware of the council receiving the memo, and the city council has not discussed it.
Box said though he’d like to see the facility remain open, he feels its closure is likely, and potential uses could be moving the military museum from the Columbus Municipal Complex to the empty space.
“I think we could move it down there and make it a lot nicer, bigger space,” Box said, adding that he doesn’t see any way the USPS can avoid closing the site.
“That’s the federal government’s decision,” Box said. “The City has had no conversation about it. It’s going to be closed, so it would be kind of premature to start taking some action until they notify us it’s going to be closed.”
The post office locations on Bluecutt Road and in East Columbus are not on the list for potential closure.
President Obama stated Monday that his suggestion of dropping Saturday delivery, selling non-postal products, and restructuring USPS retiree benefits could save USPS $20 billion over the next few years.
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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