Summit Township residents at wit’s end regarding Herman Post Office closure
SUMMIT TWP — At the close of business on Thursday, April 18, 2024, the Herman Post Office on Geibel Road put a notice on its front door announcing that it would remain closed for the foreseeable future due to flooding damage from a recent storm. Thirteen months later, much to the frustration of residents, the post office has yet to reopen its doors.
Disgruntled Summit Township residents gathered at a board of supervisors meeting on Wednesday night, May 7, to hear any updates regarding a situation which has left them having to drive far out of their way just to pick up their mail.
“I’ve been contacting the post office, multiple departments, and I keep getting shuffled around,” said township secretary Roxann Stickney. “And finally, I found a point of contact and now I've been told everything’s under review, but it's been under review for going on two weeks. Nothing’s been established yet, no determination made.”
Stickney also said that Summit Township has been in communication with the office of Rep. Mike Kelly, R-16, regarding the situation.
Township resident Jerry Huf said during the meeting that he personally received an email from Kelly’s office regarding the situation.
“(The email) said that they’re waiting on the abatements, and due to there being other tenants in the building, it’s difficult to complete the abatement,” Huf said.
Stickney says that the township has reached out to the U.S. Post Office about the possibility of relocating the Herman Post Office to another facility on a temporary basis, but hasn’t received a response.
“A resident was redoing a building and offered the space, but the post office did not respond to that,” Stickney said. “And the Herman Volunteer Fire Company has space available, but the post office hasn’t responded to that. The other space is no longer available, but the Herman Volunteer Fire company has room in their building. It's already ADA compliant, it has ample parking and it has safe site distance.”
According to Stickney, the building which houses the post office has undergone multiple inspections since its closure last year and has failed each time.
“The landlord’s trying to fix it himself,” Stickney said. “He can’t fix the problem. He's having issues remediating and getting it fixed. In the last year, he's failed three inspections.”
Stickney also says the township has tried multiple times to contact the landlord — listed on Butler County property records as Anthony R. Schnur — but have failed to reach him by phone.
Those who had a post office box at Herman before the closure have had to drive to the Butler Post Office on Main Street to collect their mail for over a year now — a nine-minute, 5-mile drive.
Bob Ray makes the trip five times per week and he said he and other Summit Township residents have to go to the back door of the post office to retrieve their mail. This can sometimes result in an additional wait of 20 minutes.
“I drive 50 miles a week to get my mail. That’s 5 miles each way,” said Ray. “And then I have to go to the back door. That’s the only place I can get my mail. I feel like a criminal. I have to go to the back door and ring a bell for someone to come to the door and get me my mail.”
For some residents, such as Huf, home delivery is not an option and they have no choice but to make the trip to Butler.
“(The post office) told me I wasn’t allowed to get home delivery because we’re too close to the (Herman) post office,” Huf said. “We were forced to get a box. It wasn’t by choice. Now we have to drive 10 minutes each way to get our mail.”
Stickney says that the post office wasn’t in ideal shape even before the closure occurred.
“We had parking issues. We had site distance issues,” Stickney said. “It wasn’t an ideal location to start with.”
“50 years ago, when there was a tenth of the population and a tenth of the traffic, it was functional,” said Supervisor Rick Green.
If little progress is made in the coming days on the post office issue, supervisors have considered reaching out to the Butler County commissioners for their assistance.
