Kenansville post office on closing list

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Kenansville post office on closing list

County News

Wednesday, 20 April 2011 15:00

Photo/United States Postal Service
Kenansville residents rallied April 12 at a meeting with U.S. Postal Service officials hoping to persuade them not to close the Kenansville post office.

Good Sam site to close Friday

By Fallan Patterson
Staff Writer
With some residents facing up to 100 miles round trip from their ranches to the main St. Cloud post office, Kenansville residents are fighting to keep their post office open.
The office is one of two Osceola County post offices on a list of hundreds the United States Postal Service is considering closing due to budget constraints.

“We’re looking at a lot of different things right now,” Gary Sawtelle, public information officer for the Southwest Florida USPS district, said, adding changes such as relocating carriers to backroom duties to increase efficiency are being implemented.
Myra McWhorter, president of the Kenansville Community Association, rounded up nearly 150 residents April 12 for a midday meeting with USPS officials, including Sawtelle, at the post office. The meeting was held outside with the officials standing in the bed of a pickup truck filled with hay and mulch because the post office’s lobby only fits 10 people.
Residents outlined several reasons they are “fighting tooth and nail” to save their post office, most important of which is the distance one would need to travel to mail a package.
A round trip from the Kenansville post office at 140 N. Kenansville Road, to the main St. Cloud post office at 4701 Old Canoe Creek Road, is 74 miles. That does not include residents who live on ranches farther south.
“They are angry,” County Commissioner Fred Hawkins Jr., who represents Kenansville and attended the meeting, said. “People can say they chose to live out there but the post office has been in Kenansville since the 1800s.”
The original post office opened in 1892, according to a resolution by the Osceola County Board of County Commissioners passed Monday opposing the closing; the current office opened in 1914, Sawtelle said.
Historical significance and a sense of identity are other factors the residents want to keep the office open.
“We’ve always had a post office in Kenansville,” McWhorter said. “We will lose our identity if they take our post office. We’ll eventually become (part of) St. Cloud. That’s what happened to Holopaw.”
The other reason is safety, for both residents and the rural mail carrier who would have to carry cash to make change for people on her route.
“Our concern is for her safety and security,” Mc-Whorter said.
Residents use the P.O. boxes mainly for security and temperature control of medications. McWhorter said many residents order their medications through the mail and enjoy the security the P.O. boxes provide.
Sawtelle said the reasons for closing post offices vary on several factors including distance to the nearest post office, costs of salary and leasing space, and the daily traffic and revenue earned by the office.
In 2008, due to traffic flow, the Kenansville post office’s hours were shortened to 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday-Friday and closed Saturday. McWhorter said USPS told her the daily transactions in the office is $28.70, on average, a “pathetic” amount McWhorter blamed on the decreased hours.
“And they wonder why the revenue decreased?” she said. “They must think we’re a bunch of country bumpkins who wouldn’t figure it out.”
Sawtelle said the final decision on Kenansville could happen as late as this fall.
Good Samaritan location closing
Due to consolidation to make the post office run more efficiently, the post office branch at 4191 S. Orange Blossom Trail will close Friday.
George Weber, communications director for Good Samaritan Village, said many of the 1,500 residents in the community drive only golf carts and scooters and lack reliable transportation to the other post offices. The nearest location at 1415 W. Oak St. is nearly four miles away.
“It’s very distressing. It’s really going to be a hardship on a lot of people,” Weber said. “I’d rather see them run it a half day than not at all.”