AS I SEE IT
By Neal A. Shipman
Farmer Editor
For those people who have stood in those long lines at the Watford City Post Office waiting to drop off or pick up a package, had to wait weeks or months to get a Post Office box because none were available, or had to wonder why it took so long to receive their mail, there is good news coming.
The U.S. Postal Service, after hearing complaints from postal customers for the past five years that the current Watford City Post Office building isn’t adequate, is finally moving forward with plans to relocate to a new and bigger location.
It is unfortunate that it has taken the U.S. Postal Service this many years to realize what every postal customer in Watford City has known for years - that the Watford City Post Office is too small to handle the volume of mail that the 15,000 people and businesses rely on on a day-to-day basis.
But then, when it comes to the Postal Service, slow delivery and lack of customer care has become the norm.
For the last five years, city and business leaders have been telling the Post Office officials that they needed to get ahead of the curve of the city’s growing population when it comes to having a new facility in Watford City. It wasn’t that city leaders just wanted a new post office. It was that the city and its residents needed it. The Postal Service was breaking down when it came to getting the job done in Watford City. But no amount of public pressure seemed to work.
But at long last, the Postal Service has finally recognized that the time has come to move from its current 4,290-square foot facility, which has limited parking space available, into a new and larger facility.
The only trouble that the Postal Service may have now because they delayed all of these years with relocating the post office is that they don’t have many options available to them. Finding what they want - namely, a 7,043-square feet facility to lease that has 66 parking spaces for customers and employees, could very well be a tall order to fill. After all, virtually every building in close proximity to downtown Watford City is now occupied. And finding that kind of downtown parking space doesn’t exist.
But the Postal Service is optimistic that they can find just what they need. And they believe that they can have the new facility operational by 2016.
Watford City definitely needs a new post office building.
So let’s hope that the U.S. Postal Service is successful in finding a building that will not only meet Watford City’s immediate population, but have the capacity to grow as the city continues to grow.