Graham Post Office declared unsafe
TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM
Built in 1891 as an Independent Order of Odd Fellows hall, the Graham Post Office was recently closed due to structural concerns. Maryville Postmaster Paul Eschbacher said a decision on whether to reopen the office, possibly in another location, will not be made for another 12 to 18 months.
As the population in rural northwest Missouri continues to dwindle, nothing, with the exception of a school closing or consolidation, punches buttons in a small town quite like the possibility of losing a U.S. Post Office.
A few years ago the Postal Service, whose annual deficit runs into the billions, announced that it was closing hundreds of small-town offices, including six in Nodaway County, and the reaction was swift, sharp and angry.
Public meetings were called, and members of Congress, which controls the quasi-independent mail agency, were caught in a blizzard of angry emails and phone calls.
Hours and staff were cut back, but when the dust settled, flags kept flying above little buildings in places like Pickering, Parnell and Graham whose residents still relish the daily ritual of picking up the mail and maybe even posting a letter or a post card.
So it was a little surprising when, with almost no fanfare, the Graham post office locked its doors just before Memorial Day, possibly for the last time.
Maryville Postmaster Paul Eschbacher, whose authority encompasses several small postal operations in Nodaway County, closed the office because of concerns about the structural integrity of the building, a two-story brick affair built as an Independent Order of Odd Fellows hall in 1891.
“The floor was giving way, and the facade of the building was beginning to lean toward the street,” Eschbacher said Friday. “The building just had a lot of structural issues.”
Under current Postal Service guidelines, Esbacher said, health and safety concerns are about the only reasons a post office can be closed, and the Graham facility was officially placed on “emergency suspension status due to structural safety issues.”
But the word “suspension” carries more weight than one might expect.
Esbacher said the decision actually means the office will remain closed “for the foreseeable future,” and that a decision on whether to reopen it, perhaps in a new location, will take at least a year and probably more like 18 months.
Even before Eschbacher declared the building unsafe, the office was hanging by a thread, staffed only by a part-time clerk, since reassigned, who came in two hours a day and an hour and a half on Saturday.
In place of the post office, the Postal Service has installed two 16-slot “cluster boxes” across the street, where Graham residents can pick up their mail. The unit contains two parcel units for packages that people who receive parcel posts can open with a key left in their box by the carrier, who, relying on the honor system, picks it up later.
The cluster boxes are provided free of charge because Graham residents are not assigned to a rural mail route.
However, Eschbacher said, if the post office remains closed for good, rural delivery will likely be extended into the town limits, and people will simply be able to install a mailbox in front of their homes.
TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM
These two 16-unit “cluster boxes,” each equipped with a couple of larger parcel post depositories, have replaced the Graham Post Office, which was shuttered late last month after Maryville Postmaster Paul Eschbacher determined the 124-year-old building was unsafe. If the office remains closed, Eschbacher said, Graham residents will likely have the choice of sticking with the cluster boxes or transitioning to rural home delivery.
