Lease extension offered to Dover post office

DOVER - More than 50 Dover residents met Friday to discuss options for the city's soon-to-be defunct post office, but an 11th hour reprieve from the building's owner could temporary keep the office in town.

The post office announced Monday that it would cease operations at its Dover facility Wednesday after losing the building's lease.

The Friday meeting, led by post office operations manager Timothy Youngblood, was meant to answer questions about the closure and let residents know what they need to do in order to continue receiving mail.

Asked why the post office was not buying or building a new office, Youngblood said the USPS has not been exempt from the nation's economic troubles and cannot build a new office.

"We're impacted by the economy just like every other business," Youngblood said. "I would love to build new post offices in a lot of places in Idaho, but we can't."

As Youngblood fielded questions, several members of the crowd voiced their displeasure with the circumstances, with one attendee calling the event a circus and another suggesting the community might as well go back to the Pony Express.

In a letter sent to Dover customers, Youngblood said the post office's lease was terminated by the building's landlord, but the listing agent for the property said postal officials did not bargain in good faith to keep the lease.

Inland Northwest Realty's Jessica Steidl represents the property and said her clients wanted to keep the post office in the building but could not do so without raising the rent. The rent is currently set a $150 a month, and Steidl said her clients asked the post office to pay $350 per month on the 96-year-old building.

"We just can't afford to keep up the building. I won't tell you exactly what our mortgage is, but it's at least 10 times what the rent is," Steidl said. "We tried to renegotiate the lease, but the post office was unwilling to work with my client. They wouldn't pay more than $150. They wouldn't come up at all."

Steidl said her clients have not been in contact with the post office since negotiations broke down, but are willing to extend the lease for four more months to give the post office more time to find a new location.

"Having not been in contact with the post office, we didn't realize that this was going to cause this huge of an inconvenience for the residents, so that's why we're extending the lease," Steidl said.

Youngblood could not be reached for comment about whether the post office would accept the lease extension.