We are concerned that the decision to move the retail portion of our Downtown Post Office has already been made without proper traffic & community impact studies.

We think our Post Office does a terrific job. Many of us use its services in the Downtown location every day. We are proud to have it Downtown as it has served us well here over the past century. It's part of our history and heritage. It is also one the last pieces of traditional community interaction available downtown. It is one of the things that defines us as a community.

By having only a warehouse/carrier facility in the CENTER of our historic downtown does not serve the public's best interest. The whole plan seems backwards. If you need to "...have this building just for letter carriers alone", as Mr. Kavanaugh has stated, it should NOT be located in the center of our historic downtown. The retail section should stay...and the warehouse/carrier section should be located to a more remote area. Prime retail space in any downtown is best utilized when it draws the public to it...not away from it. This helps make the downtown viable and supports the community as well as businesses in that area. If the Post Office moves its retail portion, it should move out entirely in order to make that prime retail space available to a business which would make our downtown stronger.

Of course we want the best for our town's postal employees, and they should have the adequate space to do their jobs properly. The towship should work creatively with the Post Office in any way it can to make the existing space work. All options should be researched and investigated...and we believe brought to the public. Sadly people don't always have the time to attend public meetings, but that doesn't mean they approve of something they believe will harm the town in the long run. We have spoken to many of our neighbors and they weren't even aware of this move - even though it was discussed in our local papers. That is concerning. It is our leaders' responsibility to speak for the people and voice concerns over something that will have a negative impact on virtually every member of our community.

If you are concerned about serving the residents on the West side of our community, we would suggest a satellie retail office on the far West side of town to keep traffic away from the heavily-trafficed Genuardi's area. When the new elementary school is open and students begin driving to the high school this area will have to be avoided if possible. Everyone that can now currently walk to the Downtown Post Office and/or live on the East side of town (and currently drive to it) will be forced to drive into the most heavily-traveled area to go to the Post Office. This serves no one efficiently.

You are making this decision during a time when our country is at war. We should be doing everything we can as a community to cut down on our gasoline consumption especially at a time like this. According to an article in the 10/11 SandPaper, the location being considered for the new retail portion is the Genuardi's shopping area. Traffic-wise we believe this would be the worst possible area due to the increased traffic problems on West Bay Ave and Barnegat Boulevard areas...especially during work & school hours.

We invite the Post Office to present a written statement on what they propose to do, and we will post it on DowntownBarnegat.com. This will help inform the public . The initial reporting on this made it seem like the Post Office was only considering making this move and it wasn't determined where they wanted to move the retails section. However in the 10/11 article in the SandPaper it is clear that this decision has been made already.

We look forward to your reply.

DowntownBarnegat.com