After signs of progress toward a Post Office branch returning to Watertown Square, City of Watertown officials recently received some bad news.
City Manager George Proakis told the City Council Tuesday night that the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) informed the developers working on the project at 104-106 Main St. that they do not plan to open a branch in Watertown’s downtown.
“Recently, the USPS informed O’Connor Capital Partners that they no longer wish to explore adding locations as part of a wider strategy shift, despite the willingness and interest from the parties involved,” Proakis said. “My understanding is they canceled multiple in-progress conversations about opening retail storefronts far beyond just Watertown.”
Despite the setback, Proakis said the City of Watertown has not given up on getting a Post Office to come to the Square.
“The City fully recognized the importance of a downtown post office on a community, especially Watertown, and that is why we have reached out to our congressional delegation to help us with this effort,” Proakis said.
The announcement came after there had been some progress toward opening a branch in the new development, which is being built on the site of the former Watertown Square Post Office.
“Representatives from O’Connor Capital Partners shared with the City that they’ve engaged with the Post Office about returning to the storefront location in the newly developed building at 104 Main,” Proakis said. “Those developments took place over several months, and there was great interest in welcoming the Post Office back to Watertown Square. I think we were all kind of working optimistically in the right direction.”
Congresswoman Katherine Clark’s office has been contacted, and has started advocating for a branch in Watertown Square.
“She’s working with teams across the House and Senate to encourage the USPS to return to Watertown Square and serve our residents,” Proakis said. “So whether we are able to get the location at 104 Main or it’s another storefront in the Square, we’re looking forward to eventually welcoming the Post Office back to our town.”
Proakis added the City has not given up, and hopes to have some positive news in the future.
“I’ve worked very hard at trying to make Watertown Square a vibrant downtown, and I think a Post Office is a part of a vibrant downtown. It’s a piece of it that is missing in Watertown Square,” Proakis said. “I think our friends at the U.S. Post Office are much more focused on cost cutting and on efficiency, while I’m more focused on kind of the foot traffic of a Main Street and the things you’re supposed to be able to do here, and one of those is mail a letter, mail a package, pick up your packages, and all of the things that you typically do at a Post Office.”
The Watertown Dems will be having their monthly meeting on May 28th at 7:30PM, and Clark’s representative will be there. Please come and voice your support on this. https://www.watertownmadems.org/
If you cannot then call or email Clark, Markey and Warren as this is now a federal issue. The USPS is comparatively cheaper than FEDEX or UPS, and UPS even uses USPS on Sundays. So the government is subsidizing business here.
This will impact no excuse vote by mail for those here and abroad. No excuse vote by mail is new to Massachusetts but the rest of the country has been doing this for years – every state west of the Mississippi, except TX, and other like ME, OH IA, FL GA, NC, MI, WI, VA, etc.. Many former confederate states do not allow this. So this is voter suppression en masse for red, blue and purple.
Lastly, the USPS is a community builder and without community we the people cannot use our power effectively