Dover celebrates new post office

DOVER — Just like the agency's motto, a little rain didn't stop the city of Dover from celebrating its new post office at a Thursday grand opening.

When the threatened rain made good on its promise, the city and the post office went ahead with the ceremony, albeit with the help of a couple of portable canopies that were quickly put together, carried into place, and placed over the audience.

Nothing was going to stop the city's celebration.

"I look at this building. You all look at this building," Dover Mayor George Eskridge said in front of a crowd of about 80 people at the front of the new Dover post office. "This is truly a public service, an asset that Dover can be proud of."

Sunny Pound, postmaster of both the Dover and Sandpoint post office, said she is privileged to serve the two communities and was excited to help celebrate the occasion. Pound praised the community for their hard work that led to the new facility.

"I've seen the process from the beginning," Pound told the crowd. "Will it happen? Won't it happen? How long before it happens? I'm privileged to be able to serve as postmaster today. I know you guys have been waiting for a long time and this is truly a happy occasion and a beautiful building."

Longtime Dover postal clerk Ryan Kraus also thanked Dover residents, telling the crowd they should be proud and he couldn't wait to share the new building with them.

"Dover, it's done," Kraus told the crowd, prompting applause and cheers. "You did it."

He recalled meeting Eskridge for the first time and the mayor asked how it was going.

"I said, 'It's just awful. Here I am. I took a pay wage cut. I'm here six days a week. I never get to see my wife,'" Kraus recalled telling Eskridge, unaware he was talking to the mayor, before telling the crowd how much it means to him to be part of the new post office. "I've got to tell you, this has been the best experience of my entire career. This is something that will never happen to me personally again. Having a post office built for me to go in and run this? This is amazing."

Postal employees have spent the past few days running from the old post office on Jackson to the new facility at the corner of Roosevelt and Fourth. While a few details remain, the post office opened for business Thursday with Kraus delivering mail to Brianna and Kix Kamp who stopped in to pick up their mail from general delivery — the first official transaction at the new facility.

As customers approached the counter to chat, drop off mail, and join in the celebration, Kraus couldn't stop smiling.

"It's gorgeous," Kraus said. "Just gorgeous."

He couldn't help but compare the spacious, bright and modern post office to what he left behind. Limited space at the now-former post office, carved out of space at the fire department, led to piled boxes and packages and narrow corridors during the holidays, Kraus said.

"It was on the verge of being dangerous. If there would have been any kind of shakes in the area, packages would have fallen," he added. "There were points where I would literally go sideways between things just to get from one side to the other."

While the post office features more space, plenty of parking and other amenities, Kraus said he is partial to the back room where the space allows for an efficient workflow to handle the mail and help the city's residents. The facility is well-lit and there is a separate kitchen and bathroom. At the old facility, tight quarters meant he could touch the walls on each side when stretching out his arms, and dim lighting made it difficult to read much beyond names and box numbers.

The new space is "mind-blowing," Kraus said, offering both an efficient layout, more post office boxes and plenty of space to handle heavy volumes of mail received during peak times of the year, such as holidays. With no delivered mail, additional post office boxes were critically needed due to a years-long waiting list that forced many residents to get their mail via general delivery because of the shortage.

"It's just going to be a huge benefit for the community," he said.

Getting to the new facility was a bit of a roller coaster for the community. It has been exciting to see it end in a facility that will serve the growing community, Pound told the Daily Bee.

"Is it going to happen? Is it not going to happen?" she said. "And then it took so long and then, all of a sudden I heard them talking about the Dover post office again and the next thing I know, I'm getting emails and there's a framed building. It's so exciting."

In celebrating the new facility, Eskridge paid tribute to the city's residents, former Dover officials and others who worked to not only keep a post office in the community but also the creation of the new facility. The city came close to losing its post office entirely in 2008 when the Postal Service was unable to negotiate a lease with the building's owner and the agency announced it planned to close the Dover facility and operate out of Sandpoint.

The city was given two options — one to receive service from Sandpoint and the other to have a variety of post office box locations scattered around the city.

"To me, the first was a no-no because I refer to Sandpoint as the suburb of Dover," Eskridge said. "Well, we couldn't do that. It would also have interfered with our community identity and required a change of address with everyone having to leave the 83825 ZIP code and come under Sandpoint's 83864."

The community rallied, with residents working to save the city's post office. Volunteers, among them Paul Nowaske, convinced the Postal Service to use the former fire station despite concerns it wouldn't be large enough. Nowaske, former councilor Maggie Becker and others enlisted the aid of former Idaho Sen. Shawn Keough, who worked with federal officials. 

The efforts were successful, and the agency agreed to temporarily move the post office into the fire station, remodeling the east side of the building. With the city's growth, it soon became apparent that a larger, permanent facility would be needed, and the effort began to find a suitable location, Eskridge said.

That ended up in a return to the same spot the facility had moved from in 2008.

Former Mayor Annie Shaha negotiated the purchase of the lot in September 2018, some 10 years after the city came close to losing its post office. The purchase of a neighboring lot allowed the city to move forward with a development plan and the project was put out to bid in August 2022. Unfortunately, none of the bids were within budget which led to the project being shelved. Last March, a more favorable market encouraged the city to try again. This time, the low bid was within budget and work began on the new post office, Eskridge said.

"It's all resulted in the completed project that we're witnessing here today and are celebrating," he added.

    Sunny Pound, postmaster of the Dover and Sandpoint post offices, and Dover Mayor George Eskridge listen as Dover postal clerk Ryan Kraus talks about the differences between the old and the new facilities.
  

    Dover Mayor George Eskridge, center, cuts a ribbon to signify the opening of the city's new post office.