ALBANY, GA (WALB) -
The fight to dave downtown Albany's post office isn't over.
The Postal Service planned to close the branch in the old Federal Courthouse building in December to save money.
We broke the news yesterday that the Postal Service now wants to extend the lease six months.
But some folks are asking what's next?
The property manager says that lease agreement is signed and ready to go. She says these six additional months will allow time for a private business or individual to come in and take over operations.
All of these PO boxes are here to stay. Great news for some but the news comes a little too late for others.
"We have lost a good bit of people who have rented boxes here we have lost them," said Frances Krack, Property Manager of the Griggs Building.
Everyone including local officials were caught off guard when the postal service announced plans to close down operations at the historic location in December.
"Normally I have a company or government get in touch with me 60 to 90 days before they would like to end a lease but they did not do that," said Krack.
But Wednesday afternoon the property manager finally got that phone call. Postal officials in Washington agreed to extend their lease for six months.
"It was sad that they did not get in touch with me to negotiate a lease with me or rent with me," said Krack.
That means for now, everything will remain the same. And officials are hopeful everything will stay the same after those six months are up as well.
"I feel like this will give enough time to bring in a private company to continue this business for our community," said Krack.
This decision comes after a major public outcry, and folks including local and officials got busy protesting the closure. And Monday, city and county officials met with the local postmaster to discuss options to delay or stop the closure.
"The post office is the face to the community we want to make sure that face is here and we continue to rally around it," said Bishop
Krack says she would love for the postal service to stay, but if they don't a private company will keep things going.
"I think the postal service sees this and they are going to work with us and by allowing this timethey are going to be able to achieve that," said Krack.
So she urges folks to keep those PO boxes. Because one way or another there will be someone to continue this mail delivery business.
Once a private business owner comes they can also get into other ventures as well like a mail box etc.
City Commissioner Roger Marietta is going ahead with a rally on the post office steps tomorrow at 2 p.m.
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