Council Wants to Save City's Targeted Post Offices

Alexandria Mayor Bill Euille will draft a letter to the U.S. Postal Service and the city’s Congressional delegation emphasizing the City Council’s desire to keep open two city post offices under review for closure.

The council moved to create the letter at its legislative meeting Tuesday night.

Council’s discussion of the two Alexandria post offices— in Del Ray and the Seminary Road location in the Virginia Theological Seminary—came on the same day USPS decided to delay the closure of targeted post offices until Congress passes legislation to rework the agency.

The fate of the two Alexandria offices was supposed to be announced by the end of the year. Now USPS has pushed those decisions to May 15 at the earliest.

In July, in an attempt to right-size its retail network to cut more than $20 billion in costs.  

“We only have a few post office branches in the city,” Euille said Tuesday. “The two that are being targeted are the two with historical significance. … I thought we shouldn’t sit idly by.”

Euille said he was particularly concerned about Potomac Station in regards to the number of businesses and planned development in and around Del Ray. No new post office location is planned for the massive development at Potomac Yard.

Council members also expressed concern that closing the two offices would negatively affect service at the city’s other postal locations.

“The impact [of closures] on rural America, people now driving 30 miles, that is a much bigger impact than what we would have here in the city,” Vice Mayor Kerry Donley said. “But closing post offices is not the right solution.”

Donely mentioned USPS canceling Saturday delivery service or raising postage rates as alternatives to closing locations.

Councilman Rob Krupicka said he believed the —which is about a mile away from Potomac Station—is on the site of a proposed park in the city’s Braddock Road Metro Area Plan.

“When we did the Braddock Road Small Area plan, we specifically discussed talking with our Congressional delegation and the U.S. Postal Service about a way to keep the post office in the Braddock Road neighborhood but perhaps downscale the size of the building,” Krupicka said.

With many postal facilities now operating with fewer employees than they were built for, Krupicka requested talking with USPS about downsizing the Wythe Street location in a new building on or near the current site and whether that would help USPS manage its costs in Alexandria.