Village of Saltaire considers closing seasonal post office
Officials in a Fire Island village said they are considering whether to close down their seasonal post office as packages from online retailers have overtaken office space and increased operating costs nearly tenfold.
Saltaire officials said there is “no easy solution” for dealing with the growing number of packages from places like Amazon that have overwhelmed staff.
“Our big issue is once you realize the packages are not going to stop coming, you really have to figure out what’s the best way to control the process,” Mayor John Zaccaro Jr. said.
In the affluent community of about 400 homes, the post office is open from mid-May through Labor Day and is the size of a large closet at village hall. It is run by two village employees, one of whom is 83 years old.
A load that used to include a few bags of mail has swelled into dozens of packages, ranging from wine from Manhattan stores to kayaks ordered online. Village officials are now planning to renovate another municipal building in part to make space for a bigger post office. They said that space could be used for storage if the village decides to eliminate the post office.
“That sort of small town post office operation has turned into a freight depot for us,” village administrator Mario Posillico said.
Tim Mooney, president of Fire Island Ferries Inc., said his company delivers between 500 to 800 packages a day in the summer to Fire Island communities. That figure does not include packages delivered for the U.S. Postal Service on passenger ferries, which can reach up to 200 packages daily.
“It’s become a challenge,” he said. “It’s not really what we signed up for.”
Saltaire officials, who said they are concerned online retailers could harm business at the village’s only store, are exploring a number of options for handling the influx of packages, including seeking more revenue from the U.S. Postal Service or asking residents to cut back on large deliveries.
Officials will host a number of discussions with residents before a decision is made, said Zaccaro, who is the son of Geraldine Ferraro, the first female vice presidential candidate on a major party ticket.
The postal service has paid the village $2,500 a year to operate the post office since 1984, officials said. Operating costs have hit nearly $20,000 a year, prompting the postal service to agree this week to raise the fee to $15,000, according to village officials and a copy of the written agreement.
“Since we have just renewed our lease agreement with the contracted supplier here, we are confident that summer residents will continue to enjoy those services,” postal service spokeswoman Christine Dugas said.
If the post office closed, the postal service would try to find another location nearby and if unsuccessful, would move services to Patchogue, Sayville or Bay Shore, which shares the 11706 ZIP code with Saltaire, Dugas said.
In the offseason, Saltaire residents typically have to go to Bay Shore for their mail.
Ocean Beach has the only year-round post office on Fire Island that is run by the postal service. Contractors run seasonal post offices in Cherry Grove, Davis Park and Fire Island Pines.
Residents without community post offices on the largely car-free Fire Island have to pay for deliveries via the freight ferry and pick packages up from docks with wagons.
Melissa McClellan, a full-time Saltaire resident, said she does not use the post office and acknowledged that is “very necessary” for summer residents.
“It basically symbolizes a lot of the community here,” said McClellan, who runs an animal shelter in Long Beach. “It just helps you not have to be connected to the mainland.”
Rachelle Blidner covers Suffolk County government, politics and breaking news.
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