Post office plans return to original site in Cape

The U.S. Postal Service has purchased the Cape Girardeau post office building it vacated a year ago and plans to move back in by September once the building is renovated.

The Postal Service plans to replace the roof and the electrical and lighting systems in the 18,000-square-foot building at 320 N. Frederick St. before reopening it as a post office, postmaster Mike Keefe said Thursday.

The agency leased the building on Frederick Street for 38 years before moving out in March last year to temporary quarters at 284 Christine St. because of what postal officials said were structural problems with the roof. Some of its mail carriers operate out of rented commercial space at 905 Enterprise St.

The Postal Service plans to vacate both locations when it returns to the Frederick Street building, Keefe said.

Civic leaders wanting a better retail postal facility enlisted the aid of U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, who in a Feb. 7 letter to the regional director of the U.S. Postal Service in Kansas City argued against relocating the post office back at the Frederick Street building.

"It would serve my constituents and your customers better if the post office were to be more centrally located and more easily accessible," Emerson wrote.

"Cape Girardeau is a rapidly growing community. I would like to see the services of the federal government keep up with this growth," she wrote.

Postal officials did not respond to the letter, said Lloyd Smith, Emerson's chief of staff.

Keefe said Postal Service regional staff in Denver decided it was less expensive to relocate back to the Frederick Street building than to build a new post office. He said an architect and roof contractor inspected the nearly 40-year-old building last week to prepare for the renovations.

The building was purchased in 1992 by C. Allin Means, a journalism professor in Durant, Okla. Means said the building had been plagued by a leaky roof but said he paid to replace the roof early last year. Postal officials said further roof work needed to be done and moved out to the Christine Street location.

The sale to the Postal Service occurred after about a year of negotiations over who would pay for further improvements. The purchase was finalized last week, Means said.

Neither he nor the Postal Service revealed the purchase price.

Means said he is glad the building once again will be used as a post office. "It will work out better for everybody," he said.

<A HREF = "mailto:mbliss@semissourian.com">mbliss@semissourian.com</A>

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