[Goldwingnut]

Originally Posted by pqrstar

RetiredGuy123 wrote "However, the locked interior space inside the postal center is probably considered Government property because it is controlled by the Federal Government. My opinion."

John41 wrote "No the postal stations, even the new post office, are leased."

So, I'm curious. . .

Does the government pay rent and utilities for the space?
What entity of The Villages collects the rent?
Who pays for utilities, electricity, water, and air conditioning?
To what Villages budget is the rent applied?

No they don't pay rent.
If they did pay rent it would be paid to the SLCDD or VCCDD
The utilities are covered in the SLAD (Sumter Landing Amenity Division) or RAC (Village Center Recreation Division) budgets.
If rent or utilities was paid to would be applied to the SLAD or RAD budgets.

It is exactly this reason (SLAD and RAD paying the costs) that I raised the issue, and it was corrected (at least partially) 2 years ago about the air conditioning in the postal facilities. They were running it at 65 degrees (or lower) year-round and leaving the door open when they were working inside the room. This was a waste of energy and an added expense to the budgets that paid the expense. Additionally, this was causing low temperatures in the room which as passed through to the metal frames of the postal boxes causing condensation and subsequent corrosion (rusting) and paint peeling of the mailbox frames.

Of course, the post office was, and still is, unwilling to do any maintenance of these facilities or burden any of the costs associated. DPM has limited ability to do any maintenance to the interior of these facilities because they are "government property" and they don't have a key to the rooms. Some arrangements and agreements have been made between the local postmaster and DPM on the maintenance and upkeep of these facilities (at our cost of course) but, in my opinion, it is still not up to the standards we as residents have come to expect for our community. The USPS has yielded little on this matter and their "holy sanctuaries", as they seem to feel they are, continue to be a maintenance issue and in many cases an eyesore and an embarrassment to our community.