UNREVIEWED: Post office closure could prove costly for downtown businesses, government

ALBANY, Ga: The ripples from the United State’s Postal Service’s announcement of the planned closure of the downtown post office could cost taxpayers, ratepayers and business owners thousands of dollars, officials say.

Businesses who have downtown post office boxes will be forced to change those numbers in order shift the boxes from the downtown post office to the South Slappey Boulevard location; a move that will force everyone from the Albany Water, Gas and Light Commission to area businesses to toss thousands of dollars worth of pre-stamped envelopes, letterheads, billing invoices and business cards.

“It’s going to cost us thousands and thousands of dollars,” WG&L General Manager Lemuel Edwards said Wednesday. “We just had 100 cases of envelopes come in that are pre-stamped with our post office box. If that number changes, which we are being told will have to happen, that’s $15,000 we’ll have to shred right there.”

The city of Albany is taking steps to assess exactly what impact the closure of the post office will have on them, Assistant City Manager Wes Smith said.

“There’s no doubt it’s going to have an impact on us. The question is to what extent,” Smith said. “And right now, we’re working with our department heads to try and determine that.”

Smith sent an e-mail out to all city department heads Wednesday morning requesting information from each department about how they may be impacted.

Mike McCoy, the deputy Dougherty County Administrator, made a similar statement saying that the county is working to determine to what extent the county government will feel the pain of the closure.

“Just about every county department will feel this, from the tax department to the courts, whether its a full or partial closure,” McCoy said. “We’re working to get a better understanding of exactly how the closure will effect us. Our plan at this point is to relocate our post office boxes to the main post office on South Slappey Boulevard.”

“This is going to cost a lot of people a lot of money,” McCoy said. “But on the flip side, I guess it’s going to be a boon for the printing businesses.”

Earlier this week, the Herald broke the story that the USPS would cease operations at the Broad Avenue Post Office by Dec. 2.

Stephen Seewoester of Corporate Communications for the Postal Service