Construction of the new Española post office is expected to be finished within the next month and a half, but United States Postal Service officials have yet to set a date to move the post office to its new location.
Postal Service spokesman Stephen Seewoester said construction is “95 percent complete” on the new facility, and contractor Blue Sky Builders is “working on interior finishes and miscellaneous items” before a final inspection of the new post office, located on Industrial Park Road just west of the Del Norte Credit Union, can take place.
“Once the building is completed and accepted by the Postal Service hopefully within the next 60 days, we will plan a move-in date and notify the community,” Seewoester said in mid-February.
Española postmaster Carlos Sanchez said customers should not expect any changes from one post office location to the other, except for the new address. Customers will continue using their current post office box numbers and keys at the new location, Sanchez said.
“It’s like we’re lifting up this office and moving it over there,” Sanchez said. “Everything will stay the same.”
Blue Sky Builders began construction on the building last June on a $2.15 million contract from the Postal Service. The building was projected at the time to be finished in April. Blue Sky Builders President Ricardo Cordova said his company is working on “punch list items” — essentially small, final details such as cleaning up the site.
Construction plans call for a 6,900 square foot facility with a larger parking lot. It will have 29 customer parking spaces, two handicapped spaces and 14 employee spaces, compared to the current post office’s total of 12 spaces. The new facility will have the same number of post office boxes, but only two service counters, compared to three counters at the current facility.
Sanchez said the new post office will have the same number of employees.
“We’re not hiring anyone, and we’re not reducing,” Sanchez said. “We don’t know what we’ll do when someone retires, but we don’t have any employees close to that yet.”
The Postal Service leases the post office’s current building adjacent to the Española Plaza from the city of Española for $28,000 a year.