Congressman Chris Smith today welcomed the decision of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to suspend the planned closing of the Freehold Downtown Station in Freehold Borough. The news of the delay comes one week after Smith co-hosted a meeting with community officials and the post office following its earlier announcement to shut the downtown station by August 15, 2009.

    “This is a positive development,” said Smith, who met with USPS officials on July 20 and March 16.  “With the added time, we can now expect that the cost data we have been requesting will be produced and properly analyzed before any final decision is rendered.  At our most recent meeting with postal officials we presented information about local commerce, traffic congestion and the needs of local citizens, i.e. postal customers.  Hopefully, the two additional levels of review inserted into the process after our meeting will ensure that our voices and concerns are effectively addressed.

    “In every one of the 21 counties in New Jersey, the town which hosts the county government and all its services has its own postal facility, some more than one,” Smith said, noting that eight of those are in towns smaller than Freehold Borough and that Monmouth County is the fourth largest county in the state. “The downtown station serves over 25,000 people, including many pedestrians who can’t walk the five-mile round trip to the next town,” he said.

    USPS South Jersey District Manager Joe Diglio confirmed Monday that he plans to steer the proposal to close the station to a select review committee comprised of USPS officials in Bellmawr, N.J. He said the committee would review the proposal, including making an on-site visit, before making a recommendation. That recommendation would be sent to the USPS main headquarters in Washington, D.C. for comment, after which time Diglio would make the final decision. Until then, the station would remain open. Diglio said yesterday he did not have a deadline as to when the panel would complete is review. Until he announces the decision, he said he would extend the lease on the 800-square foot temporary structure.

    Smith co-hosted meetings between the USPS with officials from the Borough, including Mayor Michael Wilson, and Committee members Kevin Kane and Sharon Shutzer, as well as Freehold Township Mayor Anthony Ammiano, Monmouth County Freeholders Director Barbara McMorrow and Lillian Burry, and State 12th District officials, who were represented at the most recent meeting by Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande.

“We are unified in our opposition to this ill-founded proposal,” Smith said. “If federal, state, county and municipal officials, who know the area, best say this proposal is unsafe and unwise, the USPS should hear us out and fully examine our concerns.”

The community has opposed the shifting of the business at the Downtown Station to the heavily used Freehold Township Post Office on much-travelled County Road 537, which is 2.4 miles away to the west in the Raintree Towne Center. An estimated 17,000 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.

The Freehold Downtown Station facility has about 400 rented P.O. boxes, and has been open for nearly eight years. It has a spacious parking lot, but is utilized by significant pedestrian traffic from the nearby county administration offices, the Superior Court complex and State and municipal offices, plus the businesses and offices along Main Street in a two-square mile town which has over 11,500 residents.

The Downtown Station facility is located on a lot provided by Monmouth County free of charge to the USPS. Local officials have requested an analysis of what savings may be realized when total costs, including the price tag of providing new P.O. boxes, enhanced parking and increased personnel, are calculated for the proposed receiving location at the Raintree facility.