If post office won’t listen, city should consider a solution

New Prague needs improvements for its post office building. The current owners of the building have a lease with the United States Postal Service that runs through February of 2025.

That’s the easy part.

The USPS is a difficult agency for the public to deal with. U.S. Rep. Angie Craig likened dealing with the USPS as like shouting against a brick wall. She’s being diplomatic. Craig should know. During a visit with city officials in the fall of 2022, local staff at the New Prague Post Office told Craig she was not allowed to inspect the interior section of the facility or talk with the staff. No doubt that direction was issued by one of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s minions and left to the local employees to deliver news of the snubbing. After all, as a member of the United States House of Representatives, Craig has controlled access to some of the country’s most sensitive secrets.

You can sleep well knowing the USPS won’t let just any Tom, Mary or member of the U.S. House of Representatives enter its facilities to see the state of the building and operation the government funds. Perhaps this is the agency that should take on securing our country’s borders.

The same day a report was published on issues associated with post office performance in Apple Valley, Lakeville and New Brighton, we asked last week for a copy of the most recent audit of the New Prague Post Office and its operation. Still waiting. Last week, a spokesperson for the USPS told the newspaper it had a solution for the facility but was not yet ready to share it with anybody, not even Rep. Angie Craig.

The point is the United States Post Office seems to be a federal agency not in the habit of being interested in the public’s concern about its operation. It would be well-advised not to try communicating with its customers in a fashion more aligned with a ‘We don’t need you’ attitude.

Mayor Duane Jirik said the city has had a group of investors offer interest in building a facility. That interest was offered 18 to 24 months ago and is still current, Jirik said. That’s good information to have in the back pocket. While we don’t pretend to know all the details, the ins and outs of how the post office works, it would be good to have plans ready to go should the post office continue to drag its feet, especially as the end of 2024 nears.

We’re not privy to how such an investment opportunity might work. Would the city be expected to contribute to such a facility? Given the challenges it has funding a proper facility for its police department, maybe the city’s interest would be in providing land, especially enough land for future expansion since public facilities always need to grow. We hope New Prague’s Economic Development Authority (EDA) would be a willing and capable participant in vetting a proposal to relocate the post office. The EDA is a tool worthy of consideration to keep jobs in town. Keeping the facility in the downtown area is a good idea, but not so important as to prohibit relocation. The city’s plans to redevelop the area known as City Center (north of W Main Street, between Second and Third avenues NW) should at least include consideration of a new home for the post office.

We know pulling the post office out of downtown would not be a popular decision. Years ago, Shakopee considered pulling its post office out of downtown. The suggestion was not well received. Unlike New Prague’s post office, the Shakopee facility is on a city street, with ample parking available and a drop-off box in an adjacent alleyway. Today, Shakopee’s post office remains in downtown with a separate facility available for processing the volumes of mail its downtown facility can’t handle.

It would be nice if the USPS would be able to work in partnership with the city to find a new home. It’s difficult for such a partnership to occur when one of the two potential participants won’t listen or respond.