The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
USPS slow to respond but council sees bleak future if mail delivery suspended
[ By Mark Reaman ]The Town of Crested Butte is preparing a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the construction of a post office building on its town-owned property located at Sixth Street and Gothic Avenue. The RFP is structured for the Town to select a design build team for the post office. According to Crested Butte community development director Troy Russ, it will include a contractor and architect that will work with the town and United States Postal Service (USPS) to build the facility.
The Town has been working with the USPS for more than a year to help it find a new location after the lease on its Elk Avenue location expires in February of 2026. The idea of an interruption to mail service in the North Valley has everyone on edge and the town council and staff want to facilitate a smooth transition.
But councilmember Anna Fenerty expressed some major discomfort with using that specific property for a new post office. She said there were alternative locations in town that could work while preserving that particular property for future uses. The rest of the council, however, disagreed with her analysis and were comfortable proceeding with a USPS partnership for a new Crested Butte post office that would include some deed-restricted housing on a second floor.
During the August 21 town council meeting, Russ said he was worried that any delay could throw a major roadblock into mail delivery in Crested Butte. “We need to have approval and be in the ground by the fall of next year,” he said. “That is a tight timeframe. Any delay could make that not happen.”
Russ and town manager Dara MacDonald admitted that working with the USPS has not been easy. They indicated they are slow to respond and don’t always understand the nature of the community. While the USPS originally stated it wanted an 11,000 square foot building, the first floor of the proposed site—known as the “Cosentino property”—would allow only about 7,000 square feet. MacDonald said that was still far bigger than what they are operating in currently on Elk Avenue.
Fenerty suggested the old, yellow Bakery Building near the Gas Café bus stop would work as a post office, but MacDonald said that building was less than 3,000 square feet and USPS officials had dismissed that location.
“I hear your concern over the opportunity cost of using that property, but this is a good solution,” councilmember Gabi Prochaska said to Fenerty. “I am comfortable using that land for a future post office.”
Prochaska and other councilmembers mentioned they did not want the council perceived as somehow blocking the construction of a new post office after the Elk Avenue lease expires in a few years.
“I see that Sixth Street corridor filling up with Mineral Point being built up, with Sixth Street Station eventually being built up and now the post office being built up,” said Fenerty. “That leaves only the ballfield with some space. The post office hasn’t exactly been a good communicative partner. That space could be two floors of housing instead.”
The rest of the council however agreed to continue down the path of constructing and leasing a new building on that site to the USPS.
“I’m really against that idea and will continue to bring it up,” promised Fenerty. Mayor Ian Billick said she could continue to do that but given the consensus on the council there were probably more productive uses of the council’s time.
USPS spokesperson out of Denver, James Boxrud, did not respond to a request for a comment on the situation.
