Smith: USPS will shutter Freehold Borough facility

FREEHOLD — The United States Postal Service has decided to close the downtown Freehold Borough postal facility.

The postal facility has been operating out of a temporary trailer that has been parked in a Monmouth County parking lot on Lafayette Street for the better part of a decade.

In a press release, U.S. Congressman Chris Smith called the postal service's decision an "ill-conceived plan." He said the postal service made the announcement July 13.

The press release does not indicate when the Freehold Borough postal facility will close.

Smith's congressional district includes all of Freehold Borough and part of Freehold Township.

"The data is lacking and the timing suspect," said Smith, who met with postal service officials in March. "It directly contradicts what they told a group of local leaders in a meeting we co-hosted in Borough Hall in March. Postal officials specifically promised that no decision would be made before they answered some basic inquiries about the costs of closure, and until they conducted a second meeting with community officials to discuss those costs. Those promises are being broken."

Smith has written to the regional head of the postal service in Pittsburgh, Pa., Vice President of Operations Megan Brennan, requesting that she step in.

According to the July 14 press release from Smith, postal service South Jersey DistrictManager Joe Diglio confirmed on July 13 that he plans to steer postal customers to the Freehold Township Post Office on Route 537 in the Raintree Towne Center, Freehold Township.

Freehold Borough Mayor Michael Wilson, speaking on behalf of the governing body, said in the press release that he was appalled with the announced closure of the Freehold downtown post office.

"This announcement lacks foresight and understanding of the greater Freehold area," Wilson said. "It had been clearly conveyed to the appropriate postal authorities that Freehold Borough, the county seat, serves as the focal point of commerce, law, government, and social services for the entire county of Monmouth. Moreover, Freehold Borough has a significantly large amount of pedestrian traffic. I demand that the postal service reconsider this action. The Freehold postal facility consists of nothing more than a trailer and is efficiently managed. I am unaware of any county seat in the state of New Jersey that does not have a post office.

"The news of the closure was solemn enough," Wilson continued. "However, the method used to finalize the closure was equally bad. When we first met in March, there was a promise by postal officials for future meetings and dialogue on the planned consolidation order. Unfortunately, there were no more meetings, no telephone calls, no emails, and unanswered requests for meetings and updates.

"Their lack of responsiveness and cooperation clearly points to a complete abuse toward the citizens who avail themselves of this facility. They even lacked the common courtesy of advanced notice to Freehold Borough officials of the closure. I certainly appeal to the postal officials to reconsider this potentially disastrous decision," Wilson said.

Freehold Township Mayor Anthony J. Ammiano, speaking on behalf of the Township Committee, expressed shock and anger over notification of the closing of the Freehold Borough post office.

"At a March 2009 meeting, we were told no decision would be made until further discussions and meetings were held on the issue with representatives from the state, county, Freehold Borough, the Freehold Center Partnership and the township of Freehold," Ammiano said.

"This bad decision not only impacts the residents of Freehold Borough, but also the 15,000 Freehold Township residents who live on the east side of the township. This closing will add an additional 25,000 customers to the Raintree postal facility. This plan, which was obviously based on economics, is bad for Freehold Borough and the residents of Freehold Township," he said.

According to the press release from Smith, the 800-square-foot Freehold downtown station facility has more than 400 rented post office boxes, and has been open for nearly eight years on land provided free of charge by the county.

The facility has a spacious parking lot, but is used by significant pedestrian traffic from the nearby county administration offices, the Superior Court complex and municipal offices, plus the businesses and offices along Main Street in a 2-square-mile town which has more than 11,000 residents.

Smith noted that in all of the 21 counties in New Jersey the town which hosts the county government has its own postal facility, some more than one. Additionally, more than onethird of those are in towns smaller than Freehold Borough, he said.

"Monmouth County is the fourth most populated county in the state, and Freehold Borough as its seat of government should have its own postal facility," Smith said. "I think the postal service will lose a lot of customers if they follow through with this misguided proposal."

Borough Administrator Joseph Bellina told the News Transcript on July 20 that a meeting was held that day and that local representatives have asked postal officials to suspend their decision to close the Freehold Borough postal facility until local officials can review the data postal service administrators used to make their decision.

Bellina said the local representatives would like to have the ability to make their case for keeping the Freehold Borough postal facility open.

Bellina said on July 20 that no closing date for the Freehold Borough postal facility has been set. He said postal administrators indicated that they will try to keep a month-tomonth lease for the Lafayette Street facility going until another meeting can be held.