Hawleyville Post Office Renovations In Limbo

By Nancy K. Crevier

Hawleyville resident Maureen Colbert-Wilhelm is hanging onto her fight for improvements to the Hawleyville Post Office with the tenacity of a bulldog. Since she first took on her crusade nearly two years ago to ensure that the local landmark was renovated and remained a viable entity in Hawleyville, she has had her hopes lifted and dashed over and over again.

She has addressed local legislators, spoken with representatives of the Housatonic Railroad and the United States Postal Service, and raised awareness in the area as to the necessity of improving conditions at the tiny post office on Route 25. Ms Colbert-Wilhelm has received numerous assurances that the USPS is assessing improvements to the Hawleyville Post Office. And when drawings were submitted to the Newtown design board last summer by an architectural group hired by the then-landlord, Housatonic Railroad, she had great hopes that by the spring of 2007 Hawleyville postal employees would be dishing out the mail from a newly configured space.

As the months pass with no signs of renovation or communications that portend progress, however, Ms Colbert-Wilhelm is once more faced with the prospect of sending out inquiries and hoping that “the squeaky wheel gets the grease,” she said.

What has put the Hawleyville Post Office renovation on the back burner may be that the lease on the building that houses the post office was turned over to an unnamed developer late in 2006.

The renovation of the Hawleyville Post Office is between the United States Postal Service and that developer hired by the Housatonic Railroad, said vice president of finance for the railroad Robert Finley on Friday, March 23. “There are a lot of complexities to negotiating a lease with the USPS that were beyond our capabilities,” said Mr Finley. For that reason, the Housatonic Railroad, which had held the post office building lease with the USPS, decided to bring in someone who understood the process better than they did, he explained.

Through the Mead Architect Group of New Haven, responsible for the drawings presented to the Newtown design board this past summer, the Housatonic Railroad found a developer that it felt would be able to handle the negotiations and renovation of the post office building. The post office property has been leased to that developer, said Mr Finley. Once the developer has a lease with the USPS, there will be two leases on the Route 25 property, one between the developer and the Housatonic Railroad and another between the USPS and the developer. At this point, though, Mr Finley stressed, all further renovation plans are in the hands of the developer.

“There are some town zoning issues that have to be addressed when plans are set,” he said, “and then the Housatonic Railroad will step in.”

Tom Rizzo, spokesperson for the USPS Connecticut department, confirmed that the postal service is actively engaged in negotiations with that developer, who preferred to remain anonymous at this time. “That building is on the radar screen,” said Mr Rizzo. “It is in the community’s interest and the interest of the USPS to address the issue [of the poor conditions at Hawleyville Post Office].”

An agreement between the landlord, which is now the developer, and the USPS is still needed, he explained, but he felt confident that plans to improve the Hawleyville Post Office continue to move forward.

Although Ms Colbert-Wilhelm has been told in the past that the Hawleyville Post Office will not be closed and that the present building is to be renovated, at this time whether the Hawleyville Post Office will remain in its present location is not clear. “The USPS is exploring all options at this time,” Mr Rizzo said. “Because we don’t own the property, we are open to any possibilities.”

He is aware that there is a sense of frustration among area residents about the condition of the aged post office building and what could appear to be foot-dragging on the part of the USPS. “The USPS is subject to all kinds of regulations. Any assigning of lack of progress should be taken with a grain of salt,” said Mr Rizzo. “Because it is a public building, the USPS has to meet a lot of requirements in regard to zoning and so forth. We want to do it right.”

“The new development with a developer complicates things,” admitted Ms Colbert-Wilhelm. She hangs in there, though, unshakable, certain that her mission will one day be accomplished. “We have to keep being the squeaky wheel.”