5/14/09
A customer walked in to the new Española Post Office, headed straight to the spot where his box had been located at the Post Office’s old Bond Street location, paused, looking baffled, and after a few moments’ hesitation, asked Española Postmaster Carlos Sanchez for help finding his box.
The same scene played out over and over Monday, the Post Office’s first official day open at its new Industrial Park Road location, where it moved May 9.
Sanchez said the boxes’ new arrangement has so far been the biggest hitch in the move.
“The boxes are all numbered, and the numbers are all in order,” he said. “But at the old office, their box might have been in a corner, and now its in the middle of another row. Some people don’t even know their numbers. They would just know which one was their box from going and opening it every single day.”
The move itself went quickly, and finished ahead of schedule. The United States Postal Service had announced in a press release that the move would take place May 9 — this past Saturday — and Sunday, and the new location would open Monday morning. Those two moving days, customers would have to pick up the contents of their boxes at the Bond Street office’s counter, the release stated.
By Saturday afternoon, a notice at the Bond Street location announced customers could start using their boxes at the new location that same day.
“We turned out to be way ahead of the game,” Sanchez said. “We got everything set up here faster than we expected.”
Sanchez said a few other factors complicated the move. A stamp price increase, from 42 cents to 44 cents, that took effect Monday caused some confusion, he said.
Early Monday afternoon, customers experienced a 10-minute delay when a computer terminal malfunctioned and had to be restarted.
“It’s a new post office, we’re having some technical delays,” postal worker Leonard Peña said.
Most customers had little to say about the new Post Office.
“It’s fine, I guess,” Jesse Montoya, of Española, said. “We’ll see how it goes.”
Salim Bohsali, of Dixon, however, objected to the new location.
“You can’t even walk to your own post office anymore,” he said. “Before, it was right in the middle of town, people could walk and visit there. It’s supposed to be that we’re moving in a direction of more walking, less driving. This is a step in the opposite direction.”
The new Post Office had been in the works since 2004, when the Postal Service announced plans for a new facility. The Postal Service bought a lot on Industrial Park Road, just west of Del Norte Credit Union, for the new facility in 2005.
The Postal Service awarded a $2.15 million contract — $200,000 higher than original estimates — last May to Blue Sky Builders, which completed the new 6,900 square-foot office earlier this month.
Sanchez said he still has not set a date for when the Post Office will vacate its Bond Street office, which it leases from the city of Española on a $28,000-a-year, month-to-month lease. The city has been exploring options for that building but does not have any firm plans.
Postal Service maintenance staff from Albuquerque are currently removing Service-owned heavy equipment — such as lifts and scales — from the old location. Meanwhile, Española staff are sorting through years of clutter accumulated in storage bins and closets over the Post Office’s 38 years at its old location, Sanchez said.
“It’s amazing, we’re still finding stuff we don’t need,” he said. “The Post Office had been there for years and years. I think we might be out of there if not this week, maybe the next. But still no firm date.”