Portsmouth's Cradock Post Office closing next month

PORTSMOUTH

The Cradock Station Post Office at 30 Prospect Parkway is closing next month.

The office will close at the end of the business day on Sept. 2, said Michele Martel, a U.S. Postal Service spokeswoman. The decision to close the office was made in March. In 2009, officials announced that the office was on a list of locations to be studied for closure.

“The decision seemed to take a long time to be rendered so I can see how it may have surprised some customers who may have forgotten about the meeting and the surveys they filled out,” Martel wrote in an email.

Letters were sent on Aug. 8 to homes in the Cradock office delivery area, ZIP code 23702, Martel said. A sign has been posted at the office alerting customers to the change.

Stamps can be purchased and other retail business can be conducted at the main office or the Olive Station at 201 Chowan Drive, according to the letter. Regular mail delivery will continue as usual.

Additional post office boxes were installed in the main office at 933 Broad St. so that customers can move theirs from the Cradock office, Martel said. They will be able to keep their box number and zip code.

They also can choose home delivery, but they must install a mailbox at their home and submit a change of address form before Sept. 2, the letter sent from Postmaster Kathleen Day said.

Refunds may be possible for customers, depending on when they rented their box, Martel said.

The office was identified for possible closure because of a 16.5 percent decline in retail revenue during fiscal year 2008-09 and a 12.3 percent decline in transactions over the previous year, officials said in 2009. Mail volume was down nearly 50 percent for box holders.

Postal officials held a community meeting in October 2009 to discuss changes and mailed surveys to every home in the delivery area, Martel said. They also handed out surveys at the office counter.

Carriers haven’t worked at the Cradock station in several years, Martel said. The office has been used only for rental boxes, mail handling and retail and other customer services. Carrier services and deliveries are made from the main office.

The Postal Service has been struggling with declining revenue with the rise in online bill-paying and email. For the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the service lost $8.5 billion.

Last month, the service announced a new list of 3,700 retail offices that are under review for closure.

The Customhouse office at Atlantic and Plume streets downtown; the Berkley office on Liberty Street; and the Lafayette office on Tidewater Drive in Norfolk were on the list.

Another 13 offices on the Peninsula and Eastern Shore are on the list.

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DOCUMENT |  LETTER ANNOUNCING THE CLOSURE