Post Office mulls moving retail operations

Five years after abandoning the mid-20th Century downtown buildlng that now houses restaurants and an urgent care clinic, the United States Postal Service is poised to move some operations yet again.

The USPS will hold a public meeting concerning the relocation of retail services from 210 Stagecoach Trail at 4:30 p.m. Nov. 20 at the San Marcos Public Library.

According to a letter to Mayor John Thomaides from Damian Salazar, real estate specialist for the postal service, a new location would preferably be “as close as reasonably possible to the existing location.”

“The ‘relocation project’ will consist of procuring a suitable substitute location, preparing it for use as a post office and then transitioning the retail postal functions to the new location. The Postal Service would continue retail postal functions at the current site … until the new post office is up and running,” the letter said.

The public meeting will “identify the need, identify the tentative decision to relocate retail services, outline the proposal to meet the need,” the letter says. The public will be able to ask questions and also to submit written comments during a 30-day period.

The “site or area or both” of the new facillty will also be identified, the Postal Service said.

The letter asked for input from Thomaides and other “local officials” prior to the public meeting.

Retail postal operations were transferred from downtown to Stagecoach in January of 2013.