Halloween Eviction For Hawleyville PO?

By Nancy K. Crevier

Longtime Hawleyville Post Office patron Cornelia Baker of Bethel was very upset when she stopped at the small Route 25 post office to pick up her mail earlier this week and encountered a US marshal serving papers to the postmaster, Mark Favale.

Ms Baker, who is 71 and has called this postal site her “home site” for more than 17 years, has closely followed the controversy involving the Hawleyville Post Office possible renovation or relocation that has been ongoing for the past three years. “From comments I overheard, I was led to believe that these were eviction papers,” said Ms Baker, who had heard rumors earlier this year that the post office was on a month-to-month lease agreement with building owner, the Housatonic Railroad.

Hawleyville Post Office Postmaster Mark Favale declined to comment.

United States Postal Service spokesperson Maureen Marion confirmed Thursday morning that the USPS had indeed been served an eviction notice Tuesday, September 30. “The eviction papers state that [the USPS Hawleyville Post Office] will be out of that building by October 31,” she stated.

“We have had a month-to-month lease at this location for approximately one year, as we have explored other sites [for a possible move] and done repairs to maintain the Hawleyville Post Office,” said Ms Marion, a situation not uncommon. The USPS has a number of properties around the country that run on month-to-month leases for a variety of reasons.

The eviction papers have been shuttled to the real estate and legal departments of the USPS, said Ms Marion, to confirm that the application of the eviction notice is correct. “I can tell you that our real estate people are sitting at a drawing board as we speak,” said Ms Marion Thursday morning, October 2, to determine what steps the postal service will take should the Hawleyville site need to be shut down at the end of the month.

Over the past three years, the USPS has consistently stated to The Bee that it is committed to keeping the Hawleyville Post Office open, with no discontinuation of service. This week’s news is a blow to local residents who have sought to have the rickety building preserved in the community.

“This is the most ridiculous situation I have ever seen,” said Ms Baker. “I have contacted Chris Murphy’s office, and even his staff says their hands are tied in getting information from the postal service as to what is going to happen [with the Hawleyville Post Office]. This post office has been the most wonderful post office I’ve ever dealt with,” added Ms Baker.

“It is premature for me to say what we will do,” Ms Marion said. “I can say that in other cases where we have had to leave a site in an emergency we have done a few different things.,” One of those options is to co-locate to a post office with space to accommodate the office being closed. “The customers go to another post office physically, but they keep their present address. We have also, in other situations, found a spot or parcel to install a trailer or mobile post office. In [the case of the Hawleyville Post Office], because it is such a question until the legal department confirms the application of the eviction notice, it is premature to speculate,” she said.

The USPS attempts in emergency situations to retain the identity of the postal address for the patrons, especially in a short-term case. “We are very slow to change the patrons’ addresses,” Ms Marion said, adding that “short-term” is often more than people expect, covering a time period to over a year and a half.

Local developer Steve Nicolosi has been in negotiations with the USPS for several months, he said. Mr Nicolosi is developing the property at the corner of Barnabas Road and Route 25. “I called the USPS two weeks ago, and apparently the last engineer drawings that we sent them over a month ago are okay. There was no discussion about the drawings, but I still have no signature on a lease as of today,” said Mr Nicolosi Thursday morning.

Citing budgetary problems related to the national financial crisis, the USPS told Mr Nicolosi that it is more difficult now to release money for building purposes. “They told me that there are three criteria for moving a post office. One, is safety. Two, is eviction, and the third is political. The Hawleyville Post Office now meets all three criteria: it is unsafe, Chris Murphy has been involved, I guess, and now this eviction notice. So it looks like money would become available for this project,” said Mr Nicolosi.

Meanwhile, he is moving along with the building, hoping to have a long-term lease signed soon with the USPS to take over a portion of his new building. “My mechanics are coming in now to do work and it would make it a lot easier and save me some time and money if I knew for sure whether the postal service was going in,” he said.

In August, Mr Nicolosi said that if building progressed on schedule, a spring 2009 move-in date for his lessees was hoped for.

By Monday morning, October 6, Ms Marion said that she hoped the legal department will have confirmed the validity of the eviction notice, and that more information would be forthcoming. “[The eviction notice] is certainly an issue. We are at the drawing board looking at what we can do,” Ms Marion said.