ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, September 6, 1996 TAG: 9609060023
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: KENNETH SINGLETARY STAFF WRITER
Eight years after much of the town's retail business began shifting into the annexed northern Christiansburg area, a major downtown institution is following suit.
The new Christiansburg post office will be located on Arbor Drive, behind the Marketplace shopping center near the busy U.S. 460-Peppers Ferry Road intersection, a postal official announced Thursday.
In response to the outcry this summer from town residents and officials, a small contract facility will continue to operate downtown. But downtown boosters wanted more: an official branch post office to remain near the courthouse, not just a private facility operated by a contractor.
The U.S. Postal Service located the new office in the busy commercial area because that area has the necessary space, and it is the center of the town's growth.
Town officials had mixed emotions about the long-awaited news.
"We would have preferred that it would be downtown, but since it's not going to be we are pleased there will be a post office in the downtown area," said Mayor Harold Linkous.
The new, 28,500-square-foot post office - twice the size of Blacksburg's main post office on University City Boulevard - should be open in a year. Grading has already begun at the 5.7-acre site at 350 Arbor Drive, which the Postal Service bought from developer Bill Matthews for $650,000, said Arthur Duarte, the Christiansburg postmaster.
When the new post office opens, the present downtown and Cambria post offices will close, and the Postal Service will sell its downtown building. The operator of the contract facility may buy the downtown building and run the facility there, or may open the facility elsewhere downtown, Duarte said.
A contract facility offers all the services of a Postal Service facility except for verification of metered mail. The Postal Service will provide computers, stamps, train the employees and randomly audit the facility, Duarte said. The only contract facility now operating in the New River Valley is at Radford University.
Duarte said he has already fielded inquiries from potential contract facility operators.
Christiansburg officials and residents had been lobbying for the new post office to be closer to downtown. Barring that, they wanted a classified facility like Blacksburg's downtown office - the result of a similar struggle a decade ago. Instead, Christiansburg will get a contract facility because that is cheaper for the Postal Service.
Duarte said the Postal Service consulted with Virginia Department of Transportation officials, who said the Arbor Drive site could handle the increased traffic volume the post office will bring. The site, next to the Fun Challenge indoor playground, is accessed by Peppers Ferry Road, Arbor Drive and Ponderosa Drive, all off of U.S. 460. The planned U.S. 460 bypass connector, on the drawing board now, will not interfere with the post office. It will run just behind the site.
The new post office will have five customer-service windows, including a retail outlet selling stamps and packaging materials. The current downtown office has three windows, and the Cambria office has two.
High-tech sorting machines in the new post office will allow carriers to spend less time sorting mail and more time delivering it, meaning some deliveries may occur earlier in the day. Mail delivery will not be delayed if it goes through the contract facility, Duarte said.
Town and county offices downtown may schedule mail pickup and delivery at their offices when the new post office opens.
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Mills, Oliver & Webb Inc.. The new Christiansburg postby CNBoffice will be located on Arbor Drive, behind the Marketplace
shopping center near the busy U.S. 460-Peppers Ferry Road
intersection. color. Map by staff. color.