It has been 415 days since regular United States Postal Service facilities have been available to the city of Montpelier and — perhaps ironically — local and state officials are sending letters to USPS officials demanding a working retail post office in Vermont’s capital city, without much response. Despite the return of post office boxes and the signature of a new lease, adequate retail services have remained unavailable to the community.
In the face of appeals from both citizens and elected officials, the post office has displayed a noticeable lack of correspondence, in direct violation of legal requirements. A lease for a new location was signed in March 2024 and postal facility was expected to be in operation this summer. So far, it remains closed.
Postal service officials did not respond to an Aug. 30 letter from Jon Copans, executive director of the Montpelier Commission for Recovery and Resilience, inquiring about Montpelier’s lack of retail services. Because of the lack of communication and the potential timeline, the commission filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to gather additional information from USPS leadership.