Holmes Beach residents, business owners give Postal Service earful on plan to remove P.O. boxes

HOLMES BEACH -- Holmes Beach City Hall filled up late Monday morning as close to 50 residents and business owners waited to hear about the fate of their local post office from an official with the U.S. Postal Service.

Many unhappy locals spoke fiercely about the issue surrounding the P.O. box service, which could be closed.

Last month, Holmes Beach Mayor Bob Johnson sent a letter to Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Sarasota, saying USPS officials turned down a re

quest to include continuation of post office box services as part of the process to establish a new contract.

More than 230 post office boxes may be relocated to one of two government-operated post office facilities in Anna Maria or in Bradenton Beach.

For 20 years, Jack Jackson and Peggy Myers have had a contract with USPS to run their mail-service business at 5343 Gulf Drive, Holmes Beach. Myers told the Bradenton Herald this month she and Jackson, her business partner, were going to retire and turn over the business to new owners. She was then notified by USPS about the plans for the post office boxes.

"By removing the boxes here, that removes a portion of the income," she said at the time. "That's what we're trying to stop for that reason."

Buchanan was at Monday's meeting, which gave residents an opportunity to hear directly from Carol Shirley, manager of retail for the Postal Service's Suncoast District. The crowd was also dotted with other elected officials, including Holmes Beach Commission Vice Chairwoman Jean Peelen, Holmes Beach Commissioner Carol Soustek and Manatee County Commissioner Carol Whitmore.

Shirley, who first thanked Myers for her service throughout the years, said she and her team made a strong case for Anna Maria Island to keep a third post office.

"When it got through to the approval, they approved having a contract postal unit, but they did not approve the post office boxes," Shirley said, "and the reason that I was given is because we have the two post offices and because we could offer street delivery."

Post Office options

According to the postal official, these are the options:

Go with one of the other two post offices;

If everyone went to one post office, USPS could try to maintain their same address and zip code within that post office.

"Have you ever been to Anna Maria or Bradenton Beach and tried to park at any given time during the day?" Holmes Beach resident Hank Niehilla asked Shirley. "This doesn't affect me so much. I'm sure it affects a lot of people in small business. That's why I want to know -- if it's a done deal now, just let us know so we can make contingency plans."

County Commissioner Whitmore, who has had a P.O. box since she was 15 years old, said Holmes Beach is the biggest, most populous city on the island.

"Holmes Beach is a chartered city since the 1950s that has no post office," she said. "So that's why I was hoping Congressman Buchanan could help us because there are no P.O. boxes in our city except for that one."

One big issues brought up was traffic on Anna Maria Island. Holmes Beach Commission Vice Chairwoman Jean Peelen mentioned the recent Urban Land Insitute study addressed the strain of traffic on the 7-mile island.

"This, closing those boxes, will increase the traffic from people going from Holmes Beach to Anna Maria, to Bradenton Beach, and back everyday," she said. "The last thing we need is anything that will increase traffic on the island."

Don Schofield, 86, stood up and showed a map of Anna Maria Island to officials to point out Holmes Beach's central location.

"Any logical person looking at this would say: 'Well, let's put the post office here,'" he said after the meeting, pointing at the map again, "which is right where it is."

Amaris Castillo, law enforcement/island reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7051. Follow her on Twitter @AmarisCastillo.

This story was originally published April 28, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Holmes Beach residents, business owners give Postal Service earful on plan to remove P.O. boxes ."