Sean C. Morgan
Cascadia residents now have boxes at Foster Post Office and can access their mail from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day of the week.
Cascadia residents with Post Office boxes have been collecting their mail at Foster Post Office since the Cascadia Post Office burned down in November.
They have had to stop by during office hours, said Foster Postmaster Bob Barnes.
The question at this point is what U.S. Postal Service authorities will decide about the future of mail service in Cascadia, which is among Post Offices slated for closure as the USPS tries to solve funding shortfalls.
“We’re still in emergency suspension,” said Jean Burger, a Cascadia resident. “These boxes there at Foster Post Office are just supposed to be temporary.”
In May, the Post Office Headquarters will decide whether Cascadia gets a new Post Office of its own or whether it closes for good, Burger said, but the boxes at Foster will give residents better access seven days a week.
“Any decision on the future of any post office closure has been delayed till May,” Barnes said. In the meantime, his Post Office is just facilitating getting mail to Cascadia residents.
“That’s especially brought in for them,” Barnes said of the new boxes. “They have not had to change their addresses at all. We’re just maintaining the status quo.”
The bank of post office boxes includes 60 units and has plenty of room for Cascadia box holders.
Some residents who are eligible for street delivery have put in forwarding to their street addresses, Barnes said. Some moved, so the total number of box holders has fallen slightly to about 50.
“This was approved through the efforts of Debbie Lambert, the Area Four manager,” Barnes said. “She worked hard to ensure that Cascadians would have boxes.”
Burger said she and other residents are worried about the impact on their community of losing their Post Office, which has no other public gathering options other than Cascade Bible Church.
“That’s really a detriment to us because we had a disaster,” she said. “Everybody’s hanging their hat on May.”
Contact among community members is already lower, she said. They don’t bump into each other at the Post Office, and there is no community bulletin board.
“That’s the extra tax we, as Cascadians, have to pay,” Burger said.