St. Robert Alderman Bill Shaw has a problem with the St. Robert post office.
Located in the St. Robert Municipal Center, the postal hours are significantly less than the Waynesville post office. While the Waynesville office is open until shortly after 5 p.m. and has part-day Saturday hours, the St. Robert office closes in mid-afternoon and the counter isn’t open on Saturday, though those who have post office boxes can access them 24 hours per day.
While that’s an improvement over the prior situation in which St. Robert had an office with no retail sales and access to post office boxes ended at midnight due to security problems, Shaw has repeatedly objected that the St. Robert office doesn’t have adequate signs and many people don’t even know it’s there. At Monday evening’s city council meeting, Shaw raised those concerns again.
“I can’t find it open,” Shaw said. “Can anyone talk to that postmistress about our situation?”
Shaw said he understands that post office personnel respond that they don’t have enough business to justify longer hours, but said that’s not a good answer.
“We’re in a catch-22; we don’t have enough customers to keep it open, but we don’t have it open for enough hours to get more customers,” Shaw said.
City Administrator Norman Herren said the post office hours are up to the post office and he doesn’t have any control over the hours.
Shaw said he understands Herren doesn’t control the hours but asked him to speak with postal officials. Herren said he’ll do that.
Although St. Robert is now Pulaski County’s largest city, its post office is a substation of Fort Leonard Wood. The city was the last incorporated community in Pulaski County to get its own zip code — Laquey and Devil’s Elbow, even though they’re not incorporated, have their own zip codes — and that disparity led city officials to make lobbying for their own postal station with retail service a high priority.
Herren said he’s been told that postal retail revenue has to reach certain levels before hours can be increased, and said he’ll ask for more details from postal officials.