Post office need stressed

BEN GREENE

LOUDON COUNTY NEWS HERALD

APRIL 20, 2005

No matter who answers the question, the response is the same when it comes to the need for a new post office: it's absolutely necessary.

Ann Littleton, a substitute postal worker for one serving in Iraq, said she usually works around 11 hours per day sorting and delivering mail which is stacked and piled all around her early in the mornings.

Mondays are the worst, said Susie Heath, who explained the mail has to be stacked up and frequently moved around in order to make room just to walk.

"It's nerve racking after a while. It's hard to even get out after a while," Heath said. Lindsey McCarty agreed and said at Christmas time, there is such a mass of cards and boxes bearing gifts it creates piles stacked as high as employees can reach. "There's nowhere to go," she said.

On Monday morning, when U.S. Congressman John J. Duncan Jr., who represents Loudon County, toured the post office along with a group of Lenoir City and Loudon County officials, there was merely a narrow path for walking between all the piles of mail forcing the group to travel single file.

Many postal workers cited this as a safety hazard in the event of a fire. After a recent bomb threat, they said it took a dangerously long amount of time to exit the building due to all the mail stacked around their workstations.

Moreover, the problems aren't just inside for postal employees but outside also for anyone looking to park at the post office. There are few spaces available either in the front bordering Broadway or in the back behind the office. "I've come in in the afternoon before and had nowhere to park," said Heath. Lenoir City Mayor Matt Brookshire said the need for a post office has been evident for some time and noted he and other officials had a positive meeting with Duncan after the tour.

"What we have is just not adequate," he said of the aging facility on Broadway.

Brookshire noted a U.S. Postal Service official was coming soon to perform a total evaluation, which the mayor said could help to speed up the process.

Lenoir City Utilities Board also voted unanimously Monday to use some Rural Economic Development Agency funds toward creating conceptual plans for a new post office.

In addition, the mayor said Duncan pledged his support to enlist other state senators and congressional committees in the effort to get a new post office.

Until the area gets a new post office, however, the postal workers only have one option in dealing with mail: "You do whatever you have to do to get it out," said McCarty.