Cottonwood P.O. project comes to halt
City has been without post office since 2022
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COTTONWOOD -- After about four years without one, the city of Cottonwood was set to have a post office again. But now, construction of a new post office building could face delays over a lack of payments from the U.S. Postal Service, City Administrator Teather Bliss said this week. Bliss said USPS projects were being halted across the country.
"Because of this, the general contractor is going to be pulling out of the (Cottonwood) site. They don't know when they will be back," Bliss said at Thursday's Cottonwood City Council meeting.
At the meeting, Bliss told council members she has been trying to get answers, and has reached out to both the U.S. Postal Service and U.S. Rep. Michelle Fischbach's office.
Currently, the new post office building under construction has walls and a roof, but no doors or windows.
Bliss said she was contacted by the general contractor of the post office project on Wednesday.
"They were notified of this new payment system going into effect. When I talked to the on-site supervisor (Thursday), he said something about this new payment system with the United States Postal Service was supposed to go into effect and be up and running for November," Bliss said. "Now, apparently they can't get anything up and running, and it is delayed without resolution, and no date set. So it is halting projects across the United States. It's not just Cottonwood."
Bliss said the general contractor was not receiving payments from USPS. However, the general contractor said they would still pay their local subcontractors on the project.
"The general (contractor) will just eat that, until the Postal Service pays them," she told council members.
Cottonwood has not had a post office since 2022, when storm damage forced the closure of the city's former post office location near the corner of West Main Street and West First Street. At the time, a notice from the Cottonwood postmaster said the storm damage led to a ceiling collapse. Since then, postal customers have needed to travel to the Hanley Falls post office.
USPS did install mailboxes in Cottonwood that are located near the city's fire hall. But after years of not getting answers about when a post office would return to Cottonwood, Bliss reached out to members of Congress, including Fischbach.
Construction of a new post office building at the corner of West Cottonwood Street and West First Street began this fall. Bliss said the project was set to be built in phases, with the first phase being completion of the building's exterior, including doors and windows. Doors and windows for the new post office would not be arriving until later this month, Bliss told Cottonwood council members.
Bliss said she reached back out to Fischbach's office this week after learning about the post office construction delay.
"I spoke with the legislative director from (Washington) D.C. several times today," Bliss said Thursday. "She reached out to the Postal Service government liaison in D.C. that we've been working with. He did not know anything about this, what was going on. So he is also looking into it."
Bliss said there has been a national halt on projects and spending due to cash shortages with USPS. She said Fischbach's office and the USPS liaison do not believe Cottonwood was supposed to be included in that halt.
"That's what they're hoping, but obviously nothing's guaranteed," Bliss said.