ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, July 27, 1996 TAG: 9607290010
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: KENNETH SINGLETARY STAFF WRITER
Because Blacksburg and Radford both have two full-service post offices, Christiansburg deserves two as well, a citizens' group resolved this week.
Organizers of a Wednesday meeting of about 40 people are urging town residents to write to Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, and Virginia's two senators to press them to ask the U.S. Postal Service to keep the small downtown post office as a full-service "classified" facility when a new main post office opens in the busy U.S. 460-Peppers Ferry Road area, more than two miles from downtown Christiansburg.
Blacksburg's downtown post office and Radford's First Street office are classified facilities run by the Postal Service, offering a full range of services, including post office boxes and window attendants. So far, downtown Christiansburg boosters have only been able to extract a promise from postal officials that a so-called "contract" facility would remain downtown.
But some downtown advocates worry that a contract office would have slower delivery, wouldn't feature all the services of a regular post office, and might close after just a few years.
Meeting organizer Glenn Cochran, an insurance agent, is asking residents to insist that the downtown office become a classified facility.
"We deserve a classified office in downtown Christiansburg," Cochran said. About 4,000 people and between 50 and 60 businesses are within a mile of downtown, he said.
The Postal Service has its eye on a five-acre site on Arbor Drive behind the Marketplace shopping center for the new main post office. The 25,000-square-foot facility will have more parking than the downtown office and more efficient operations, according to the Postal Service.
The Town Council, Montgomery County Board of Supervisors and others with downtown interests have rallied to the post office cause in recent weeks.
Sandra Chapin, Montgomery County's voter registrar, was among those at Wednesday's meeting. Her office is in the Montgomery County Courthouse and is a frequent user of the present downtown post office to receive official documents, such as campaign finance reports and, at election times, absentee ballots. What is now a short stroll across Main Street to send and receive mail could turn into a half-hour or longer drive, depending on traffic, once or twice a day.
Moving the post office to the U.S. 460 area and leaving a "contract" facility would result in a hardship for her office, Chapin said.
"For absentee voting, especially, it would be critical," Chapin said. "One day makes a difference in whether somebody gets to vote."
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