Mountlake Terrace won’t lose its post office

MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — The city’s post office won’t be closing or moving anytime soon.

The 1,844-square-foot post office at 23210 57th Ave. W. has been a community mainstay since it opened in 1967.

This month, the U.S. Postal Service signed a two-year lease with the owner of the strip mall property at which the post office is located, said Ernie Swanson, U.S. Postal Service spokesman.

The property owner is Calvary Fellowship Church of Mountlake Terrace.

Rumors of the post office’s demise — or move — have circulated throughout the city for more than a year.

Those rumors were well-known to post office employees, said acting postmaster Terri Williams.

“There was talk of closure and my boss said she was not closing any post offices,” she said. “Everyone here is very happy about that.”

Williams said employees learned in October that the site would not be closing..*

Mountlake Terrace’s post office operates only as a retail outlet and offers post office boxes for rent, Swanson said.*

He said the postal service leases about two-thirds of its post offices.

The post offices’ two employees who deal most with customers have spent 25 and 19 years, respectively, at the site, Williams said.

“They know most everybody who comes in here,” she said. “I think the special thing about it is they are a part of the community and the community knows what they’re going to get when they come in here.”

Maria Borella stopped by the post office Friday to retrieve mail.

“I was hoping that it would stay open,” she said. “It’s a convenient location and it’s never super busy so if I have to mail something, it’s easy to do.”

The Postal Service is in the process of downsizing and moving a south Everett site at Claremont Way to a new annex at 2201 100th St. SW. The new location will include post office boxes and retail services. No date has been set yet for the old site to close. People with post office boxes at the Claremont site can move them to the annex or to the main post office in downtown Everett.

Reporter Debra Smith contributed to this story.

Oscar Halpert: 425-339-3429, ohalpert@heraldnet.com.

* This story has been corrected since it was first posted. It originally misstated the status of the Mountlake Terrace post office.