By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
After 21 years, Sitka’s Pioneer Station post office has closed its doors.
“Due to unforeseen circumstances, the Pioneer Station’s contract will not be renewed,” says the note taped to the front doors of the Lincoln Street business. “We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. All mail can now be picked up at the main post office. It has been a pleasure and a privilege to have served you the last 20 years. ...”
Ed Conway, who owns the Pioneer Station Contract Postal Unit at 338 Lincoln Street, said the decision was a sudden one, prompted by the inability of Conway and the U.S. Postal Service’s Alaska District negotiator to agree on an increase in the contract to continue to operate the station.
The 500 mailboxes were removed on Sunday and boxholders’ mail was moved to the Sawmill Creek Road main post office. Conway and one of his longtime employees, Dolores Doggett, were dismantling and removing other equipment and infrastructure this morning when Conway spoke to the Sentinel.
“It’s kind of sad, the way the thing was handled,” he said. “We’ve had a good relationship with the post office and our landlords. ... We’ve had some boxholders as long as we’ve been here, we’d see them every day – they’re like family. It was a fun place to come to work. Now it’s gone.”
Discussions on the contract increase started last October, Conway said.
“I gave the post office a letter stating that I haven’t had a raise in 10 years,” he said, referring to the payments Conway receives to operate the substation. “I need an increase to the contract.”
He informed the Alaska District he was initiating the opt-out clause in the contract, and was giving the agency the required four-month notice that he planned to close on Feb. 1. After not hearing anything from Anchorage for a few months, he talked to the Sitka post office manager, who had also been trying to find out about the future of the downtown contract.
“In mid-January, I get a phone call, that the post office wants to talk about the contract,” Conway said. “They want to negotiate. I said, you’ve got my number and that’s the number I can work with.”
He received confirmation on Feb. 1 from two officials in the Anchorage office that he could expect receive the requested increase.
“That’s all I need,” Conway said of the verbal confirmation. He left town on vacation, thinking the matter settled.
While in New Zealand, Conway found out from employees that no adjustments had been made to the contract, and he called the Alaska District office in Anchorage in mid-March to find out what happened.
He said he was told, “‘Oh yeah, we decided not to give it to you.’”
Conway soon after received a certified letter explaining the decision to not renew the contract at the increased rate was due to a decrease in revenue and the “close proximity” of the main post office, which is 1.3 miles away on Sawmill Creek Road.
When Conway reached postal officials on Friday, he said, “they were apologetic about how the whole thing went down.”
But Conway said he felt he had put a reasonable offer on the table, and wasn’t interested in anything less than that amount, after 10 years of no increases. The tentative plan had been for Conway and Doggett to keep the business, for Conway to retire, and for Doggett to take over management duties.
He said he was sorry the plans wouldn’t be realized, and for the inconvenience to customers who enjoyed the location, its longer hours of daily operation and its Saturday schedule.
Conway opened the business about a year after he retired from a 20-year career in the U.S. Coast Guard, where he worked as a chief damage controlman. He said he felt lucky at the substation to have had “the best employees in town,” and a job he thoroughly enjoyed.
“It was a blast,” he said. “I loved every minute of it. I thoroughly loved working for the post office. I liked coming into work – coming to work was fun.”
A letter from Melissa Medeiros, manager of marketing for the Alaska District of the post office, dated today, was also taped to the doors. It notified boxholders that the last day of delivery there was May 11, that there will be no changes to their box number or mailing address, and that they may pick up their mail starting Tuesday at the Sitka Post Office, at 1207 Sawmill Creek Road.
Hours for retail service at the Sawmill Creek Road post office are 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The lobby is open 24 hours a day (for customers to pick up mail from their boxes), the letter said.
Those with questions may call Consumer Affairs at 564-2828.
