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Since the Lansing Post Office was smashed into by an elderly driver in a Ford F150 4x4 in late November residents have been eagerly awaiting its reopening.  Repairs to the Lansing Plaza storefront were completed around December 19th, and it seemed the branch would reopen any day.  At least one business owner in the plaza says that no post office has hurt her business.  But over a month after repairs were completed it is still closed, held up by Postal Service Bureaucracy.

"There's an inconvenience unfortunately," says Ithaca Postmaster William Hyrnko.  "It wasn't planned by any means.  Are we going to open?  Yes.  We're going to be back in there.  We don't have a time yet, other than that the paperwork was submitted to the Northeast Area and I'm hoping any day.  We're ready other than the display case.  We can open without that case."


Hyrnko says that he is waiting for the go-ahead from the Postal Service's Northeast Area office that makes decisions for the region.  He has submitted a proposal for new hours and a permanent staff position for the Lansing branch that is awaiting approval from the region and the union.  He says that the reopening was also held up while waiting for retail products such as stamps, and a retail display rack to replace the one destroyed in the crash.

The hours that the retail counter will be open would be reduced.  The employee would sort box mail first thing in the morning, only opening the retail section when that is done.  Hyrnko says sorting should only take a half hour, and doing it without interruption will provide more consistent service to customers.  Tentatively the branch would be open through at least part of the noon hour, then close for a few hours, then reopen for the rest of the day.  Access to post office boxes would remain open throughout the day.

He also says he wants to create a permanent position that would be bid on by interested postal employees and assigned by seniority.  The position would be divided between the Lansing branch (6 hours) and the Warren Road post office (2 hours).  Lansing residents have gotten to know Steve and Owen, and Hyrnko said the job could go to one of them.


"Everything has to be approved," says Hyrnko.  "If we extend hours, if we cut hours, if we reduce our staffing, it all has to be analyzed and processed and evaluated.  There are all kinds of tangibles.  It's the bureaucracy -- like anything else that we do.  If we didn't have the accident it would be the status quo.  It all has to be approved again."

That means that he can't open the branch under the old system, with Steve Funcell filling in behind the desk on a semi-permanent basis.  Other landlords approached Hyrnko to move the branch to their available retail space to get it reopened sooner.  "That was an option but we didn't pursue it," he notes.

While the Warren Road and downtown offices have '24 hour lobbies', with steel and mesh reinforced walls to provide security when the retail sections are closed, Lansing does not.  That requires that an employee be in the building whenever it is open for boxholders to access their post office boxes.  But without the retail products, Hyrnko says keeping an employee there would be a waste of money for the Postal Service.  "We tried to ship him other work, but that wasn't justified," he says.  "The person is unsupervised.  You have to balance the money you're taking in against the customers' wants.  You can't do it all."

But customers' wants are not the only fallout from the accident.  Lansing businesses lose money in the extra time it takes to go twice as far and then to stand in line when normally they would just use their key to get mail out of their boxes.  The Postal Service lost products, store fixtures, and is increasingly losing the good will of its Lansing customers.  Hyrnko says that while most customers have been patient, there are an increasing number of complaints by a small number of people.

Lansing Plaza owner Dr. Elliot Rubinstein has had to front expenses while waiting for the insurance company to pay, including a check he sent this week to reimburse the Postal Service for the cost of an employee who had to be present while contractors were working for security reasons.  Damage to the building was well over $40,000.

In the storefront next door, Lisa's Dream owner Lisa Craig says that the Post Office was like an anchor store in a mall that attracts people who then go to the other stores, and that business is noticeably down since the branch shut down.  "I do feel like our business is being effected by it as far as the traffic and visibility," she says.  "And we miss it.  A lot of people come in and say they are missing it."

As far as the building is concerned, the branch could have reopened three weeks ago when Hyrnko received the all-clear from a Postal Service building inspector.  Lansing Engineering and Planning Coordinator said last week that as far as the town is concerned the branch can reopen.  But until he receives final approval on all the elements that are in play, the branch will remain closed.

Hyrnko says it could be another two weeks before the branch opens, possibly less, but probably more.  He says the whole package of reduced hours, a permanent position, and just being ready to be open will benefit everyone, in part because it will make a case on the regional level to keep the branch open going forward.  "We're trying to make it win-win for us and for you, because there isn't enough workload available for eight hours a day," he says.  "We'll do the whole thing all at once.  We could have shut it right down, but we didn't.  We're going to maintain it and staff it, but we're going to do it differently because we're not going to waste the hours having an employee just sit there."

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