Post office closure affects businesses, residents
By ROWENA PLETT
Staff writer
The secretaries at Agri-Producers, Inc., at Tampa were used to going downtown at 8:30 or 9 o'clock every work day morning to pick up the mail.
When the post office closed in May 2003, that changed.
Now the mail is placed in a cluster of outside boxes and is delivered by Steve Jirak, Ramona mail carrier. Jirak also provides services out of his truck, such as stamp sales and certified mail.
Everyone in Tampa agrees that Jirak is doing a good job, but he is subject to the weather and the volume of mail, so his arrival at Tampa varies from day to day.
"We have to drive downtown three or four times almost every day to see if our mail has arrived," said Gayla Deines. "And if we need something and we can't catch him, we can't get it."
The Tampa office of Agri-Producers is headquarters for a conglomerate of six farm co-ops in the area. All billing is from the Tampa office.
Secretary Shirley Geist said she sends out 700-950 statements to customers each month. When they're ready for the mail, they are picked up by the mail carrier.
Geist said the downtown mailboxes are so close together that only one person at a time can access their mail. If the weather is bad, they have to wait until noon to get it. She also said sometimes the collection box can't handle all the outgoing mail.
"You have to fight it to get the mail in there," she said.
Geist is from Herington but she used to buy her personal stamps in Tampa.
Edna Mueller, a clerk at Tampa State Bank, said the bank sometimes has so much outgoing mail that they can't get it in the box.
She doesn't enjoy dealing with all sorts of nasty weather. And whenever mail needs to be certified, it necessitates a trip to Ramona. Orders for stamps have to be placed a day ahead.
"It's kind of a hassle," she said.
The post office already was closed when Shawmar Oil Co. took over Cardie Oil this past fall.
Craig Settles became president of Cardie Oil. He said the company has worked around the closure. He also said he doesn't know enough about the situation to take a stand on the matter.
Jesse Brunner runs a small business in Tampa. He said the post office closure hasn't been much of a problem for him but it would be nice to have a post office again.
Katherine Hajek, 77, and her husband, Martin live three miles from Tampa. They have to go to Ramona, eight miles away, to mail a package. They also use special envelopes for ordering stamps.
"I would like to have a post office," she said. "I wish it would open up."
Adeline Bernhardt is an 84-year-old widow who has lived in Tampa since 1946.
"I think we deserve a post office," she said. "We had more (post office) business here than any other small town around. They didn't give us a chance. They gave us the run-around. It was an injustice considering the revenue."
The post office was closed after mold was discovered in the walls following roof damage during a storm. Bernhardt said the problem wasn't taken care of because the owner of the building lived in Chicago and wasn't around to maintain the building.
She doesn't like having to get her mail outside in all kinds of weather. She said the boxes were froze shut several times during cold, wet weather.
"You don't know what it's like unless you've gone through it," she said. "I feel like we have to keep trying."
