USPS: Solutions to Save Downtown Northfield Post Office

Despite the end of a last week, the fight to keep the downtown isn't over.

City Administrator Tim Madigan told city councilors on Tuesday that there are four solutions to keep a United States Postal Service presence downtown.

The news came following a meeting with regional postal administrator Anthony Williams, the man in charge of the scheduled closure of Northfield's historic downtown post office. Northfield Councilor Suzie Nakasian and Northfield Downtown Development Corp. Executive Director Ross Currier, both part of the Save Our Post Office Task Force, also attended the meeting.

The first solution, Madigan said, would have a local entity buy the post office and rent it back to the USPS at no or minimal cost. The second would have the city or the EDA purchase the building toward the same end. 

The third would require a trade-off by downtown-area residents: give up individual mailboxes in favor of two clustered boxes per block, which would drastically reduce the amount of letter carrying the cash-starved postal service would do.

Finally, according to Madigan, Williams, who has not set a deadline for an alternative proposal by the advocacy group or city council, said a retail service could take over downtown delivery, valued by many businesses, letting the postal service serve the rest of Northfield from a carrier annex in the town's southwest.

More than 1,000 signatures were collected on a petition to save the post office, according to the task force.

How we got here

USPS representatives announced April 5 that Northfield had been identified as one of many sites throughout the nation for consolidation or closure in an effort to mitigate billions of dollars in losses the past several years—and expected losses for the future—as more and more people turn to alternative methods to communicate with each other and ship goods. Northfield was selected because the USPS says the downtown space is too large for the services and using a smaller facility can save money.

The task force has worked with Minnesota's delegation, particularly Congressman John Kline's office, and had USPS representatives in town last month to see the downtown office and carrier annex. Currier told Patch last month that Kline's help was especially appreciated and that the visit from the USPS reps seemed to make an impact.

“That solution (to consolidate Northfield's office) was developed by a USPS person at 10,000 feet,” Currier said. “It made sense from the office in Denver, but when the guys from Minneapolis and St. Paul came down here, they shared some of our criticisms of the annex.”

The USPS estimates it will take $250,000-350,000 to expand the annex to meet the needs of Northfield. It's estimated $750,000 will be saved over a 10-year period by making the move.

Northfield’s downtown location is one of 16,000 offices considered for closure or consolidation out of about 32,000 post offices throughout the country. Nearly 500 branches closed last year, according to the USPS.