Congressman Chris Smith met with regional U.S. Postal Service (USPS) officials Monday, along with government officials from Freehold Borough, Freehold Township, Monmouth County and 12th State Legislative District, to in an effort to dissuade postal officials from going forward with a proposal to close the Freehold Downtown Station in the borough. 

    The 800-square-foot trailer has 760 post office boxes, and has been open for nearly eight years on land provided free of charge by the county. It has a spacious parking lot, but is utilized by significant pedestrian traffic from the nearby county administration offices, the Superior Court complex and municipal offices, plus the businesses and offices along Main Street in a two-square mile town which has over 11,000 residents. 

    "We had a productive meeting and postal officials said no final conclusions have been made," Smith said. "Closing the Downtown Station and shifting its business to Freehold Township would be a major mistake. It makes borough residents and employees from surrounding offices who now walk to the station drive a nearly 5 mile trip to check their P.O. boxes or buy stamps. It puts a lot of cars on the road and sends them to an overcrowded, congested facility." 

    The USPS is considering closing it and steering the traffic to the heavily used Freehold Township building on County Road 537, which is 2.4 miles away to the west in the Raintree Towne Center. Residents from the eastern areas of Freehold Township would have an even longer drive. That center is extremely congested, with little parking available in a narrow, bottleneck configuration. USPS officials said construction could address the congestion, however township officials were quick to note that improvements to the site that have been proposed over the years have never materialized. 

    In attendance were Smith, USPS Central New Jersey District Manager Priscilla Maney, Freehold Postmaster Leonard Oaks, Freehold Borough Mayor Michael Wilson, Freehold Township Deputy Mayor Anthony Ammiano and Committeewoman Dorothy H. Avallone, County Freeholder Director Barbara McMorrow, and other officials. 

    Maney, who will make the decision to keep the downtown station open or close it, said she is also considering a contract postal unit (CPU) which would have most USPS services in a business such as a pharmacy or store. 

    Smith noted that every single town in the 21 counties in New Jersey which hosts its county seat of government has its own postal facility, some more than one. Additionally, more than one-third of those are in towns smaller than Freehold Borough, he said. 

    "Monmouth County is the fourth most populous county in New Jersey, and its seat of government – Freehold Borough – should have its own postal facility," Smith said.