Future Of Botsford Post Office Is Uncertain

By Steve Bigham

From time to time, Terry Stoccatore stops by to look through the windows of the building at the corner of South Main Street and Botsford Hill Road. By now, she had expected that to be her place of work. However, lawsuits, work order changes and an all out work stoppage have delayed completion of the building for nearly a year.

And this week, word began to spread that the building – once believed to be the future home of the Botsford Post Office – may never open at all.

“We’ve heard a rumor to that effect,” Mrs Stoccatore said Wednesday, still stuck working in the Newtown Post Office on Commerce Road. “Basically everything’s all finished. The counters and computers still have to be put in, but it looks like a post office. There’s a big hole where the PO boxes are supposed to go.”

“It could be true,” Botsford postmaster Charlie Hermanson said of the likelihood that the new post office may never open. “Right now, it’s some people’s speculation. All I know is everything is on hold until I’m told otherwise.”

Since last July, Botsford residents have had to travel to the Commerce Road facility to get their mail. Many of them sent letters of complaint to Hartford back in September when the new post office was supposed to open. However, they were never provided with a satisfactory explanation.

Using post office specifications, Pat Gallagher of Groton Post Construction had been contracted to complete the 3,178 square foot building. However, at some point last year, workers were removed from the job after an apparent disagreement between Mr Gallagher, the architect, property owner John Kalas of Monroe and the post office, which reportedly made changes in specs late in the process.

Word coming out of the post office this week indicates that all bets may now be off.

Mr Kalas, who works in Monroe, entered into an agreement with the postal service three years ago to provide a new facility to replace the 40-year-old building, which once housed the Botsford PO. He owns the 3.1 acre parcel of land where the new facility now sits empty. The postal service went to Mr Kalas with “rather voluminous and detailed” plans for its new office, and in turn agreed to lease the building when completed from Mr Kalas over a period of 20 years.

But in the ensuing months, as Mr Kalas supplied his architects with the postal service’s plans, something went wrong. All Mr Kalas knows is that when the postal service showed up to survey the new foundation being poured, it realized it was too small. And that was just the beginning of the problems, Mr Kalas explained.

According to Mr Kalas, somewhere during the planning stages of his architects, Wiles Architects of Bridgeport, basic specifications required by the postal service were changed. There were doorways that had to be torn down or changed, there were bathrooms that were not installed meeting the proper disability codes. “Every time there was a change or something went wrong, it had an effect on the rest of the project,” Mr Kalas said.

Mr Kalas, who could not be reached this week for comment, claimed last year to be facing overruns nearing $200,000 in a project that should be relatively simple, as construction projects go. “It should not have been this difficult,” Mr Kalas said.

“From what we hear, Kalas may have a lawsuit against the post office for changing the specs and the post office has a lawsuit against Kalas because they did not come in on deadline,” a postal worker explained this week.

Last year, Mr Kalas also stated his intent to sue Wiles Architects and Associates for alleged errors it made in the drawing and planning stages of the project. Last year, the architectural firm denied any wrongdoing in the matter, saying that it followed the specs of the post office and was no longer in the picture.

For Terry Stoccatore, the news that her “temporary” move to the Newtown Post Office may end up being permanent has been somewhat disheartening.

“I really miss the customers. With a smaller post office it’s more one on one. It’s like a little family. It’s very frustrating not getting answers or not knowing who to call,” she said.

Last July, Botsford postal workers were forced out of the old building which once housed them after the building was sold to Connecticut Countertops. Since then, the Botsford Post Office has operated along Commerce Road, forcing Botsford residents to make the cross-town trip to get to their mailboxes.

   “We’re in limbo along with all our customers,” Mrs Stoccatore said. “All this uncertainty.”