Cape post office moves this week

~ Business at the Frederick Street location will resume Tuesday.

Starting on Tuesday Cape Girardeau's post office will move to a familiar location -- its former facility on Frederick Street.

By Tuesday morning the city's postal operations on Christine Street and Enterprise Drive will be shut down and business will start up once again at the post office's former location.

Over the weekend postal service workers will be readying the Frederick Street location for service when it opens at 8 a.m. Tuesday.

Operations at the Christine Street location, which handles customer service, and the Enterprise Drive location, from which mail carriers work, will once again be under one roof, said postmaster Mike Keefe.

"This will make our managing day to day much better," Keefe said. "If we have a problem in one area, we'll be able to take care of it very easily having everything in one place."

The post office moved in March 2004 due to a leaky roof at the Frederick Street location. The building was leased by the post office and was privately owned. In April 2005, the U.S. Postal Service purchased the building and began renovations, spending about $1 million total.

Keefe said the temporary locations at Christine Street and at Enterprise Drive were not adequate, and building a new post office would have cost $7 million to $12 million.

Now local residents who have become accustomed to the customer service location on Christine Street will have to reacclimate themselves to the old location.

But Keefe thinks that process will be much simpler than getting used to the Christine location.

"The transition back down here will be very simple, because people are used to this being a post office," Keefe said.

The roof isn't the only difference at the renovated Frederick Street office. More post office boxes have been installed and more space has been created in the lobby, among other improvements.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182