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Neighborhood report

A call for improved postal service

By SHERRI DAY
Published March 17, 2006

Carol Curtiss remembers when the Port Tampa post office was open for eight hours a day, with two clerks manning the front desk and friendly carriers traversing neighborhood streets.

But several years ago, the U.S. Postal Service reduced the hours of the Port Tampa branch, 6801 S West Shore Blvd. Doors open at 10 a.m., close for an hour during lunch, and shut down for the day at 4:30 p.m., frustrating Curtiss and other residents who resent having to go to other post offices.

"We're very concerned that we don't have the full service that we used to have'' said Curtiss, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1973. "The hours that the branch is open are short, especially with it being closed in midday. It's difficult to arrange one's schedule to conform to the split sessions that the facility's open.''

Curtiss and several members of the Civic Association of Port Tampa want the postmaster to hire another clerk, increase hours of operation and restore neighborhood letter carriers, who were transferred to other facilities as a cost-cutting measure.

If the postal service doesn't act soon, residents fear overcrowding particularly when thousands of home owners move into Port Tampa's new developments.

Postal executives said their actions were well-founded. Upon surveying customer traffic, the agency found that few people frequented the post office between 8:30 and 10 a.m.

Budget concerns also prompted executives to trim the staff by two managers and several carriers, who now work out of the Interbay post office in Guernsey Estates. Without carriers in the Port Tampa post office, customers must go to the Interbay station to retrieve packages that cannot be delivered.

"It's just a matter of economics for us,'' said Bridget Robertson, customer relations coordinator for the Tampa post office. "We have to operate as a business. Basically everything we're doing, we have to look at it cost effectively just as everybody else does nowadays.''

Postal executives have no plans to close the Port Tampa office, Robertson said. But they also don't expect to increase the staff or operating hours.

Their stance could change once several large residential developments along West Shore Boulevard finish construction, Robertson said.

That possibility does little to appease residents.

"They've just set that post office up to fail,'' said Jill Buford, the civic association's president. "All the important hours of the day are gone. Our carriers are gone. They've left one clerk at the counter who has to run the whole show. At the minimum, they need to put a part-time person in there."

Sherri Day can be reached at sday@sptimes.com or 226-3405.

[Last modified March 16, 2006, 12:11:16]