Post Office Lobby Hours Changed
William Paine/Patriot Publishing
Town of Pulaski Post Office.
By WILLIAM PAINE
Patriot Publishing
The Post Office in the Town of Pulaski has curtailed the hours that its lobby will be open for public access. As of Thursday, February 15, the lobby of the post office will be closed at 6 p.m. and remain closed until 7 a.m. the next day. In addition, the Pulaski Post Office will now be closed on Sundays and holidays. The lobby area is replete with hundreds of post office boxes, which are accessible to the public.
Council member Jamie Ratcliff mentioned the recent change in lobby hours at last week’s meeting of the Pulaski Town Council.
Overnight “guests” have frequently stayed in the lobby of the Town of Pulaski’s Post Office. These post boxes will no longer be accessible after dark. (William Paine/Patriot Publishing)
“I’m 62 years old and that lobby has never been locked and I don’t know why that is,” Ratcliff stated. “It’s really going to hamper small business in town. It’s going to hamper people who get off at 5:30 to check their mailboxes. They’re paying to rent these boxes. They should have access 24/7.”
In response to a request for an official statement for the change in lobby hours, Philip Bogenburger, head of communications for Post Offices in Virginia, submitted the following explanation.
“The safety of employees and customers is a top priority for the Postal Service. Due to numerous incidents of vandalism, the Postal Service made the difficult decision to temporarily adjust lobby hours at the Pulaski Post Office. The lobby will be open 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday thru Saturday, until further notice. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank customers for their understanding and continued support.”
Bogenburger, based out of Charlotte, North Carolina, is the only individual authorized to give an official statement on the lobby closure.
However, conversations with Post Office employees who wish to remain anonymous, give a clearer understanding of the circumstances leading to the curtailed lobby hours.
On the morning of Thursday, Feb. 15, Pulaski Post Office employees arrived to find a kerosene heater in the foyer leading to the post office lobby and this led to a significant amount of kerosene being spilled. As a result, the odor of kerosene lingered in the foyer for several days afterward. It’s not clear whether the heater was on when it was discovered but the heater had been in use at some time during the night.
Post office employees believed that this clearly created a fire hazard and this, (unofficially,) was the root cause of limiting lobby access during overnight hours.
Sources within the post office say that for the past year, homeless individuals have on multiple occasions stayed through the night in the lobby of the Pulaski Post Office. Post Office Employees would frequently see these individuals as they opened the Pulaski Post Office and then urge them to leave the premises. Oftentimes, these overnight guests would leave trash and other evidence of their stay, which post office employees were obliged to clean to put the lobby back in order.
Apparently, as per the Philip Bogenburger’s statement, some of these vagrants vandalized the interior of the Pulaski Post Office.
This change in access to the post office lobby will likely remain in effect indefinitely.
March 2, 2024 @ 7:25 pm
You let one homeless woman shut down the access to the entire community.
Keep making stupid decisions and American citizens will be hostages in our own cities and towns.
Have the police make several overnight checks on the post office 100 feet from Police Headquarters. Then arrest trespassers. On BTW then didn’t charge the woman and released her
Good decision!!!!!!
March 2, 2024 @ 8:14 pm
The problem is half of Pulaski still tries to live in a society that no longer exists. It’s not 1980 anymore. Drugs and homelessness are not epidemics that you can just blind-eye and pretend don’t exist. How can we properly fund law enforcement and necessary public services when 2/3 of Pulaski is either “disabled” or dependent on welfare in order to survive?
March 2, 2024 @ 9:07 pm
Why not just have an armed guard there 24/7? It is a Federal building. Still lock the place down after employees go home for the day, but have folks that have boxes there show proof of that, let them tend to their business and send them on their way. I don’t have a box there but this seems like a logical solution. This way the folks that work later in the day can still get their mail..
March 2, 2024 @ 10:25 pm
why not issue everyone with a post office box an entry card that will unlock the door and only they would be able to gain entry inside during the lock down hours.. of course a new locking feature would have to be installed on the door but bigger towns do this all the time.. they would hold their card with their individual pin number, code, up to the lock part and it would open the door.. simple.. pulaski ”wastes”
enormous amounts of money in other ways to spoil the elites in pulaski so stop wasting money and do something useful.
March 3, 2024 @ 1:22 am
I understand the decision to change the hours of access to the post office but it’s also for the safety of the public. Some of the same ppl who complain, would file a lawsuit if they were someway endangered or harmed by the carelessness of someone who was violating the law and causing problems.
Even if the police checked in several times or more throughout the night, it doesn’t take long for something bad to happen while they’re not there.
March 3, 2024 @ 5:26 am
If security is the problem of overnight guess why do they not just have a security lock on the door and everyone who is renting a pill box since they go app on the feet every year, have ASS card to access the door so they can still go in at the hours and check their mail if it is a small situation what can be found very likely and very quickly without taking away the full assets of people here in palaski. Do you have assets at the hours to the mail? People does get off at 5. They’re used some people get off it. 6, they are not able to get to the Post Office within the hours. You are providing for them. This is not right.
March 7, 2024 @ 5:40 pm
I agree with the access card idea for those who have post office boxes. The USPS is over funded anyway, for what they do, what’s a few more thousand dollars to install this technology for their patrons??