Post office sites are pleasant surprise

The U.S. Postal Service has responded to Ketchum’s stern demand that it locate a new post office within the town’s existing commercial area. It has come up with four options. Now postal officials want to hear from the public.

Ho,ho,ho—happy holidays. The Postal Service has invited the public to comment at a hearing on Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the American Legion Hall.

No one should pass up the opportunity to tell officials what kind of post office they want for Christmas.

The Ketchum Post Office has been the heart of the town for a long, long time and should remain so.

The four sites being considered are a pleasant surprise.

In other areas, the Postal Service has been inclined to ignore the sociological importance of post offices in the lives of communities. New facilities too often have focused on the industrial and utilitarian aspects of mail delivery.

For example, the Hailey Post Office was built with cars, not people, in mind. It changed downtown traffic patterns for people and vehicles. It is distant from downtown stores. People must make a separate trip to the post office now instead of dropping in on foot as part of their errands.

How people use the post office in Ketchum was not ignored.

The four options for a new Ketchum Post Office are basically user friendly. All are within walking distance of homes and businesses. A post office on any one of the sites would foster the town’s friendly nature by remaining a place where neighbor could meet neighbor.

Keeping a new facility within the community core instead of somewhere on State Highway 75 makes sense. A distant facility would produce more highway traffic and congestion on a road that doesn’t need any more.

The site that is now home to Headwaters and Bald Mountain Lodge is not our favorite. However, residents and visitors need to face the fact that the quaint buildings may not last forever given high real estate values that may force higher density and intensity as the property changes ownership.

By proposing the downtown sites in Ketchum, postal officials avoided what could have been an acrimonious showdown. Instead of using their federal power to run roughshod over a town that wants to develop itself with people in mind, postal officials did a good job by proposing sites that will work for mail and people.