Meeker to fight for Raleigh post office

RALEIGH -- Mayor Charles Meeker pledged Monday to fight the pending closure of downtown's 134-year-old Century post office.

Meeker plans a news conference at 11 a.m. today on the steps of the historic Federal Building, which houses the postal station. He'll ask the Raleigh City Council to pass a resolution opposing the closure, which is scheduled for July 15.

"It doesn't make any sense to close it," Meeker said.

The mayor enlisted support from Democratic U.S. Reps. Brad Miller and David Price, who said they'll urge the U.S. Postal Service to reconsider.

"Neither he or I want to be involved in every decision that the post office faces," Miller said. "But that post office is of great historical significance. It is such an important institution to downtown Raleigh."

It's unclear whether the opposition will have an effect.

Faced with a drastic drop in mail volume, the U.S. Postal Service says it must close stations and scale back services across the country.

The Postal Service, which lost $8.5 billion in its 2010 fiscal year, has said that 80 percent of its post offices lose money. Demand for the agency's services have declined as more people use email, pay bills online and turn to FedEx and UPS for shipping needs.

The agency said in January that t may close as many as 2,000 little-used or redundant retail facilities.

In December, postal officials closed the State University Station just off Hillsborough Street. The Crabtree Valley station will close June 24, shortly before its lease runs out with the mall.

The law allows the postal service to close stations only for maintenance problems, lease expirations or other reasons - but not lack of profitability. Congress is weighing a bill to make it easier for the postal service to close the unprofitable ones.

"We want to be a viable business for years to come and must change to maximize our operations," said Enola Rice, a postal service spokeswoman.

The service does not operate with taxpayer dollars, but on revenue from products and services.

Finished in 1877 at a cost of $400,000, the building at Fayetteville and West Hargett streets was the first post office built in the South after the Civil War.

It was designed in the Second Empire style by Alfred B. Mullett, the architect responsible for the Old Executive Office Building near the White House.

At the time, Raleigh's population of fewer than 9,000 had never seen such a substantial investment by the federal government, Meeker wrote in a letter outlining his opposition.

In 2006, the federal government allocated $2 million to help restore the building to its original grandeur.

The facility "has served us daily through world wars, recessions and celebrations," Meeker wrote. "We must keep it as our Downtown post office."

The nearest alternative for downtown mail is nearly a mile away on New Bern Avenue. But the New Bern station has long lines, Miller and Price wrote to U.S. Postmaster Patrick Donahoe.

"Closing the (facility) is a shortsighted decision that will not only negatively affect downtown Raleigh, but the Postal Services' future standing within the community," Miller and Price wrote.

The renovated U.S. Bankruptcy Court occupies the upper floors of the building.

Bloomberg News contributed to this report.