- The citizens of McCausland received a letter in January from the US Postal Service stating that our Post Office would be suspended as of February 24th 2006. The reason given for the suspension was not being able to find an adequate building to house the Post Office. This letter came as a shock to all the citizens of McCausland. For those of you that are not aware, our Post Office was moved to a temporary location 2 years ago. Al Moore who was our mayor at the time was already working towards finding a new location for the Post Office as the current building was in need of extensive repair. Al approached Steve Lindle, a business owner in town, about the possibility of offering a portion of the building Steve was refurbishing. The proposal was made to use the front portion of the building as a Post Office. A representative from the United States Postal Service decided the Post Office needed to be moved from the current location and held a town meeting to inform residents they would not lose the town Post Office. It was just a matter of where the new office would be located. They also explained to residents the process in which approving the new location would take place. The building owned by Mr. Lindle, located at 304 Salina St, was agreed upon by the Mayor and city council to be a very desirable location as it sits on the main street, has ample parking and thanks to the refurbishing would be an attractive building to house the post office. -
- Mr. Lindle agreed at that time to offer the building to the US Postal Service and began what was to be a 2 year process of dealing and negotiating with Mr. Mike Ward from Denver, who handles those decisions for the Postal Service. At one time in August of 2004, Mr. Ward sent an architect, Jerry Purdy, to assess and approve the building, which he did. Mr. Lindle received a contract to sign after terms were discussed in length on the phone. Part of the requirements was to obtain a separate parcel number for the front part of the building, which was done, and he was reimbursed for on December 31, 2005. At no time did Mr. Ward ever state or even imply that this location was not suitable. -
- We as a town are prepared to do what we can to stop this from happening. Not only would this prove to be a huge inconvenience for all of us, it could also stop many of the people from outlying areas that come to town for postal services. Take a minute to think if you will about the many people with rural Long Grove or Princeton addresses who come, use the McCausland Post Office to buy stamps and mail packages. These are the same people who stop at the Corner Market, our gas station in town and buy a gallon of milk and fill their gas tanks. They also stop at Our Place, (a restaurant) for a sandwich. This is of course one of many scenarios. The loss of the Post Office will affect all the businesses in town from the plumbers to the baker to the body shops. We depend on parts to be delivered by Next day mail; we have elderly who depend on medicine to come right to their mailbox. A mailbox in an enclosed heated facility where medications will not freeze, not a box along side the road. Lets talk about that for a minute. What happens if we get a registered letter or a package, we are not prepared to make a 20 mile round trip drive to Long Grove or Princeton. We are worried about identity theft; we don’t want our credit card statements sitting along side the road, outside with a small lock or maybe no lock at all? Without the liberty of having a bank in town, many of us run to the Post Office for a money order, we mail in bank deposits and car payments. What about when we are out of stamps and the letter “HAS” to go out that day. We would be losing a huge convenience that we have all taken for granted. We have many residents who do not drive and without public transportation they would not have availability of postal services from another town. -
- We are informed and educated of our rights. We have researched every city in Iowa with a population of 300 or less. We would be “THE ONLY” city in Iowa with a population of 200- 300 without our own Post Office. Of every city with a population of 11-300 we would be the only city who has more than a 6-mile drive to a post office. Do you realize that every city with a population of more that 200 has there own Post Office and for those with populations off 100 or more the majority either has their own or has one with in approximately 2 miles. We believe our town is the first of many small towns to have this happen. We are not being singled out, just a small town on a list with a small population who is in need of a building. Other small towns are to follow; as they are in need of a new building they will be next. -
- A town meeting was held on January 23rd, 2006 in which members of the USPS came to explain to residents how our new “Cluster Box Units” would work. The citizens of McCausland unanimously agreed that we do not want the CBU’s. McCausland is interested in doing whatever we can to keep our Post Office open. Community members and business owners alike came forward and explained how losing our Post Office would be detrimental to our town. We offered suggestions for keeping our Post Office in the current “temporary” location or even driving to Long Grove to get our mail until a new location can be found. We feel that if we allow CBU’s to be installed our chances of “EVER” getting a Post Office again are slim to none. We are not a trailer park and find it unacceptable to be treated as such. -
- We, the citizens of McCausland are prepared to do whatever we can to keep our Post Office open. Please help us by contacting the members of the USPS as well as our senators and congressman. -