Our View: Downtown

post office must be preserved
Although it has been the butt of thousands of “snail mail” jokes — well before the e-mail era — most of us would admit the U.S. Postal Service does a pretty decent job of keeping our nation connected — even when the connection includes unwanted junk mail.
With gas prices hovering in the $3-per-gallon range, it’s pretty amazing to consider the incredible journey a letter makes — a piece of paper leaves Bangor, Maine only to arrive across a continent in Walla Walla, Wash. a few days later for only 41 cents. You can’t even get a can of soda for that amount.
The post office is deeply ingrained in our national sense of nostalgia — an essential part of the “Main Street USA” dream.
How many of us remember rushing into the post office as a child to claim our anticipated box of Sea Monkeys or an ant farm or less enthusiastically for a box of birthday socks from Aunt Trudy?
This very image of a more congenial, customer-friendly America is under subtle attack with the recent announcement by the federal postal service that the downtown Boone building will be placed up for sale with no guarantee the post office will stay in that location.
Before we deliver a parcel post of righteous indignation, we should commend the postal service for at least guaranteeing the inclusion of historical preservation covenants in any future deed. It would have been more encouraging had the postal authorities communicated this agreement in advance and it raises a question so far not addressed. Why does this have to happen?
Doesn’t it make more fiscal sense for the postal service to remain its own landlord rather than going through with the expense of hiring a real estate firm (not local, incidentally) and wasting time inherent in such a large sale?
And even as we commend the postal service for also including a public comment period, we can’t help but wonder why they didn’t notify the local media sooner — it is obvious this has been planned for awhile — to maintain a longer period for taxpayer dialogue.
Finally, the most disturbing aspect of this decision is the postal service’s unwillingness to state flatly an intention to remain downtown.
Many Wataugans who can’t or don’t drive and live downtown, the post office serves as a vital lifeline for a variety of services delivered by smiling employees surrounded by decades of local history and heritage — it’s been that way since 1938.
The current, rather bland postal building on Blowing Rock Road is constantly crowded both in the parking lot and inside.
It would be the height of bureaucratic incompetence to suppose one facility can serve the needs of a growing town like Boone. It’s true, the postal service has not claimed such a move is in the cards. But surely the postal service can better serve the people of Boone by not hiding behind the blanket of “exploring all of our options.”
Ripping the post office from the heart of downtown Boone and robbing a historically significant icon from our midst is an option that must never be explored.

— The Watauga Democrat