UPDATE: This story has been updated to clarify and correct several items. First, the Middlefield postmaster was responsive to the Keoughs’ concerns about safety and, in fact, visited the building. Second, the shortened hours at the post office took effect several years ago, not in January. Also, the issue with the heat being turned down occurred on a holiday weekend in mid January and, according to Dorrie Keough was a one-time occurrence done without permission of the regular employee. Finally, the lease has been month-to-month since 2000.
For as long as anyone can remember, a small 170-year-old building in the hub of Parkman Township has served as the township’s post office.
But the building’s owners told township trustees at their April 3 meeting that they have given postal officials notice that their month-to-month lease is being terminated within the next 30 days.
Township officials speculated about where it could be re-located, and no one could think of a suitable location.
Building owners Joe and Dorrie Keough told trustees it was a tough decision, but the building is not being maintained well and is, in their opinion, unsafe.
“This is a very difficult topic for me for a number of reasons,” Dorrie told trustees. “As the landlord of the post office building, it’s gotten to the point that we can no longer lease that building to the post office department.”
For the past two years, postal officials have, in her opinion, badly neglected the 1,000-square-foot building at 16200 McCall Road, just off Main Market Road near state Route 528.
“Particularly during the last two years, the postal service has cut their hours and cut their cleaning service,” Dorrie said. “The floors are dirty and we believe the building is unsafe.”
Dorrie said she and her husband contacted the postmaster in Middlefield, who oversees the Parkman post office, with their concerns. The postmaster visited the building and inspected the lobby. She agreed to request the rugs in the lobby be replaced and they were more than a year ago, at approximately the same time the cleaning services were discontinued.
“Several years ago, they cut their hours to four hours a day, and two hours on Saturday,” she said. “We found out that during a holiday weekend in mid January, the heat was turned down in the building for several days. The pipes froze and burst, spreading water inside for one to four days.”
And, because the post office is a federal agency, Dorrie explained they do not have a key to the building.
“There is also an ADA issue, and the way the building is now, there is no way we can come into compliance,” Joe Keough added.
“We’re seeing no way to rectify the situation except to terminate the lease,” Dorrie told trustees. “As the building owners, we are liable for public safety.”
She explained she and her husband have owned the building since 1981 and initially had a fixed-rate lease with the United States Postal Service. Since 2000, the lease has been month-to-month as the Keoughs tried in vain to contact postal officials.
“We really have no choice but to terminate the lease,” said Dorrie.
Under the lease terms, the Keoughs must give the postal officials 30 days’ notice.
“We sent a certified letter on March 28 because we needed to start the process,” she said. “Ironically, it went to their post office box and we don’t know if they received it.”
As a member of the Parkman community, Dorrie is hopeful a post office will continue to operate somewhere in the township.
“We hate to see us lose those services in Parkman,” she said. “That’s why we have hung on as long as we have.”
Trustees said they could not think of another location in the township that is suitable for a post office.
“I will contact postal officials,” Trustee Jon Ferguson said. “It might be futile, but it’s worth a shot. My success rate with government offices in the past has been zero.”
