Mendota Post Office Targeted for Possible Closure

The has once again been listed as a potential site for closure by the United States Postal Service.

USPS is evaluating 3,700 of their retail locations across the country for potential closure, according to a statement. Retail location transactions have declined by $2 billion over the past five years, contributing to hefty losses.

There has also been a shift in business from traditional post offices to online transactions and satallite locations such as grocery stores.

The Postal Service does not receive tax dollars for operations.

While the closure of a post office in any community will have ripple effects, Mendota’s post office is unique for a metro area in that it’s run like a township post office. Residents in the 55150 zip code, unique to Mendota, do not have mailboxes and rely on their post office box for mail delivery.

“It’s a unique situation,” said USPS spokesperson Pete Nowacki.

Mike Schletty, the postal clerk in Mendota, described the post office as a “meeting place” for residents. He said he knows most of his local customers by name or face.

This isn’t the first time the post office has been listed for potential closure in the eight years Schletty has been working in Mendota. Most recently, Mendota was also up for review in 2009. “I don’t think anything’s going to happen,” said Schletty, “but you never know.”

If the post office were to close, residents would receive home mail delivery in some form, possibly through “clusterboxes” or individual mailboxes, Nowacki said. While they haven’t calculated the cost of transitioning to a new delivery system, he said the cost of providing home delivery would likely be less expensive than maintaining a post office.

“It’d be sad to see it go,” said Mendota resident Steve Douglas.  While Douglas said it would be nice to have home delivery, he was worried that mailboxes would be vandalized.

Mendota resident Steve Schrank said the postmark of Mendota, MN, like the town, is historic, and people come from surrounding communities to use it. “I don’t think I’ve ever walked in there when there weren’t two or three people.”

Apparently, the steady stream of business isn’t enough. “It’s not really a question of performance,” said Nowacki. “What they looked at in urban areas … was proximity to other locations.”

There are 12 other locations with five miles of Mendota, however, Eagan’s post office on Lexington is the closest on this side of the river (3.1 miles). The Elway post office on West 7th Street in St. Paul is listed as the closest (2 miles).

Nowacki said the public will have a chance to provide feedback on the changes in the next few weeks, and it will take several months to close any chosen locations.