In the News

By Bill Archer
© December 22, 2011
Full story here

WARDELL, Va. — This time, Cinderella made it home before her post office turned into a pumpkin.

As he opened the public hearing concerning the closure of the Cedar Bluff, Va., Post Office Wednesday evening, Charles N. Griffith, manager of post office operations for the U.S. Postal Service’s Bristol, Va., office, announced the Postal Service and building lessor had come to an agreement concerning the Cedar Bluff facility.

“Everything has been signed off on within the past hour,” Griffith told a crowd of about 100 people who came to the public hearing at the National Guard Armory building in Wardell. The crowd appeared ready for a squabble, but they unfolded their arms and broke into a round of applause at the announcement.

Jim McGlothlin, Cedar Bluff town manager asked if the Postal Service intended to notify the Cedar Bluff customers who had already moved their boxes that it is OK for them to move back?

Paul Bradshaw, district coordinator for Southwest Virginia and southern West Virginia said that the postal service wasn’t going to take immediate action about the closure.

Tom Childress of Pocahontas, Va., asked about the other post offices in the area. Griffith said all have been extended for another five months.

“Most people in these small rural communities don’t use the Internet,” Childress said. He said that closing post offices that serve small rural areas can really hurt the communities. “It’s basically another nail in the coffin,” Childress said.

Griffith said that the Postal Service examined 3,700 post offices during its initial round, and will likely examine an additional 3,700 post offices in 2012.

Randy Bolling, who represented the Lester family’s interests in the negotiations that resulted in a new lease on the Cedar Bluff post office, addressed the audience, stating that the Lester’s position has never changed during the 17-month-long negotiations. He said that the terms offered to the post office were consistently lower than the existing agreement that the Postal Service had been working with. Bolling expressed thanks to the office of U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., for his efforts on getting the two parties talking.

“This is fantastic,” U.S. Rep, Griffith said. “I’m glad the parties were able to come together.” He said that he did not take any part in the negotiations. “The small role I played was just to ask the parties to talk with each other.

“This was really the community that brought this about,” Griffith said. “All of my constituents who contacted my office made this possible. They are the ones who saved their post office.”

“Nobody wants to lose their post office,” Charles Griffith, no relation to the congressman, said. “I was happy to make this announcement.”

“It looks like you’ll have some good news to report,” Jim McGlothlin said as he left the armory.