Tinton Falls Officials Still Dreaming of a Post Office
By GARRETT STASSE
A Tinton Falls Borough Councilman says he will continue to press the U.S. Postal Service to build a Post Office here.
However, Brendan Tobin also said the agency is always changing criteria, dragging its feet and changing personnel to make progress difficult.
Councilman Gary Baldwin said hes been told the postal service wont build another post office as long as the nine branches that now serve the borough have the capacity to do it.
The issue arose at a council meeting Tuesday night when Councilman Paul Ford asked council members to increase efforts to get a post office in town. This has been an issue since he moved to town in 1990 and is becoming more so as the borough grows, he said.
I drive a lot in North Jersey and there are towns with 700 people that have Post Offices, he said. To a lot of people, especially in the south end of town, this is a hot button.
The boroughs about to acquire about 12 acres on Shafto Road near West Park Avenue for a post office. The closing is planned for Friday, Borough Administrator W. Bryan Dempsey said.
The land was donated to the borough in return for approvals for an age-restricted housing development to be built nearby from the Planning Board.
The long-sought intent is to have one zip code instead of nine and a central place to serve this growing municipality, Ford said. Without it, people will have to keep using that four-digit route code after the zip code or face not getting their mail for two weeks, he said.
Dempsey said he would send a letter to the postal service noting the land acquisition. Tobin and Baldwin expressed doubts that the land would be enough to entice the Postal Service to build a facility.
I think the reality is that this is a business decision that has to be made, Baldwin said. They have plenty of capacity, and as long as they have the capacity sufficient to serve people they dont want to spend the money to build the building and hire a post master until those facilities fill up. Until they do theres little chance well get it.
Tobin added that Postal Service officials told him they dont consider a facility at over capacity until it handles 150 percent of its intended workload. All 10 facilities that serve the borough in some form are over 100 percent; some are at 135 percent, Tobin said.
Tobin said that was just one more excuse the Postal Service gave for doing nothing.
The Post Office comes up with every conceivable excuse, he said. These are annoying people. Theyre a constantly moving target, but were going to continue to work on it because thats what the residents want.
In other business, all four fire companies take to the streets on Sunday to bring Santa Claus to town, Tobin said. Expect plenty of noise and gifts for those who contacted the departments asking for deliveries.
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