Wilkesville, Ohio neighbors face nearly 17-mile round trip commute to get mail
Follows post office closure
WILKESVILLE, Ohio (WSAZ) - A special trip to the post office means traveling great lengths for Wilkesville residents like Chuck Brown.
Brown says for as long as he’s lived in the area, he would only have to drive about two blocks to get to the Wilkesville Post Office in Ohio.
However, for about a year now -- he and his fellow neighbors have been locked out, after a sign was posted on the building.
The sign essentially says the Wilkesville Post Office had to close its doors due to health and safety issues. In the meantime, neighbors will have to travel to another post office farther away.
“It’s a long trip, it’s 17 miles … It’s probably 25, 30 minutes out of your day,” Brown said.
WSAZ reached out to the United States Postal Service to find out if a reopening date for the Wilkesville Post Office has been determined yet.
A spokesperson responded saying in part: “The date to reopen the Wilkesville post office has not yet been determined ... We are still working with the landlord to ensure all necessary repairs are completed.”
WSAZ’s Marlee Pinchok got on the phone with Kyle White, who is the Wilkesville Post Office building owner. She asked him if he made all the necessary repairs and adjustments that he was told to make.
“As far as they have told me, yes… I’ve also been dealing with the local postmaster. They said they did a safety inspection in August and said that there are additional items that they found that needed to be fixed and no one has reached out to me. No one has given me a report of what needs to be done,” White told Pinchok over the phone.
While White waits for a greenlight to see if and when he can reopen, the added miles are pushing the patience of neighbors.
“You get a truck like this that gets 17 miles to the gallon -- it takes one gallon to go get your mail. One gallon of gas is bumping four dollars. So, what used to be two blocks is now a four-dollar trip just to go get your mail,” Brown said.
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