Politics & Government

At Northfield Post Office, It's 'Crickets Chirping' As Residents Wait for Closure

Some residents feel that their attempts to communicate with USPS have fallen on deaf ears.

It's more than two years since the United States Postal Service announced it would be closing the downtown Northfield post office.

But the post office is still open, and Northfield residents say officials have been unresponsive to their efforts to preserve the building's history and keep postal services available in the downtown Northfield area.

“At this point, you just kind of pound your head on the desk and wonder what you’re supposed to do anymore,” Northfield Community Development Coordinator Michele Merxbauer told the Star Tribune. “We’re not even being met with resistance, it just feels like we’re being ignored.”

The postal service has been planning on selling the building, and hopes to move its downtown Northfield services to a a retail window nearby.

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“It’s certainly a lengthy process, it’s a complicated process, and it’s obviously something that has to be done right,” USPS spokesman Peter Nowacki, told the paper, noting that a historical preservation employee will be responding soon to groups such as the Save our Post Office task force, the Northfield Heritage Preservation Commission and the Minnesota Historical Society. 

Merxbauer said that, waiting for a response from USPS, the atmosphere around the post office is dispiriting.

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“In the meantime, the post office is still open, it’s still doing its day-to-day business, but it’s almost like there’s a cloud hanging over it,” she told the Star Tribune. “We got the big notification, and the big ‘for sale’ sign went up out front, and then it’s just been crickets chirping since then.”




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