We'll Never Get A Villages Post Office Unless We All Start Squawking Louder!

[Villages Kahuna]

Here I am in southwest Michigan. I go to the Post Offices in Sawyer (population 2,661), or Three Oaks (population 1,742), or Bridgman (population 2,428), or Harbert (population 1,619), or Lakeside (population 196), or New Buffalo (population 2,085), or Union Pier (population 881). All have full-service post offices.

We live in The Villages, population 75,000 and growing at the rate of 6,000 or so each year, and we don't have our own Post Office! We have to go to Lady Lake (population 13,854) where they have three post offices! Or Fruitland Park (population 3,186), or Oxford (population 2,904), or Belleview (population 3,478), or Wildwood (population 3,924). They all have nice post offices, open 5-1/2 days a week, fully staffed, etc.

What have we done to get crapped on so badly by the Postmaster General? Geez, The Morse family gave George Bush close to a million dollars so he could get elected for two terms. What'd they get for the community they built? Zippo!

Just another reason why we need a new administration in Washington...as if we needed more reasons.

Maybe folks will get mad enough to write their Senators or Congressmen. But be careful, many of them may not be there when the 111th Congress convenes in January, 2009. I hope those that don't make it actually have to get a job and try to make an honest living.

[jerseygirl008]

Good points Kahuna. When I first visited TV in April, I needed a post office. I started by going to LSL - Jane's Outpost. Figured that was a post office. WRONG. Took me 45 min. to actually find one. I wondered that very same thing. Why no post office in TV. Then, at my closing in May, had to pay $190 for 3 mail box keys. Still, no post office in sight. That kinda got me thinking. I can get mail IN but none OUT. Curious minds want to know . . . WHY??

[Muncle]

First of all, yes, I would like to have a post office in TV. For anyone interested, there was a so-so article in the Daily Sun last Feb on the subject: http://www.thevillagesdailysun.com/articles/2008/02/12/news/news02.txt

However, I really don't see why anyone would think we had a right to one specifically for TV. There are probably at least a half dozen full service post offices within 10-12 miles of anywhere in TV, ranging from Fruitland Park to Summerfield. And that's probably more than I had in Fairfax County, VA., and there are a lot more people there. But, say the magic post office fairy comes down one night and grants us a PO. Where are you going to put it? Wherever you do, it's going to be farther than an existing location for a significant number of residents. Put it around Spanish Springs and people down south will go to Wildwood, Fruitland, or Oxford. Put it down south and the folks in the historic area will keep going to Lady Lake and those in the western part will stay with Oxford. And regardless of where you put in, those up north will still be closer to Summerfield or the one on CR42.

Yeah, I'd like to have a full service PO here, if for not other reason than to provide more options and to be golf-cart accessible. But I'd rather have a Bojangles fast food joint or a Trader Joes. And I think we deserve those just as much.

[Sidney Lanier]

From Village of Belvedere we travel the same distance to the very friendly and full service Oxford post office as from our home in a rural part of the Mid-Hudson Valley to the town's post office. The only 'big deal' that i see for a Villages post office is that it'll be golf cart accessible, but as Muncle pointed out, given the size of TV, many of us might end up having to travel considerably further to get to a TV post office....

[dadspet]

Once you wait in the line at the Post Office on Route 25 Jan to March you will see the need for a full service post office. Its a joke offering us a "Post office" that only sells stamps with no customer service. In our area of NY we have several post offices servicing a smaller community and at least one Full Service Post office is needed for the Villages.

[PJ]

:agree: :agree: :agree: We NEED a Post Office.

Muncle, when in Fairfax, and I knew I needed something to go out ASAP, I'd take it over to the Merrifield P.O., and it would get posted and outta there. Here, in TV and the Lady Lake P.O., ALL of our mail is leisurely tottled over to Daytona Beach to be posted even when it's headed to the West Coast. That's crazy! It takes forever, and the recipients' sometimes ask why it was posted in Daytona, (which is East of TV.) This doesn't make sense to me.

Yes, I agree it would take some work to figure out where to put a P.O. but I think it could be done.
And :agree: we need a Trader Joe's.

[Muncle]

Yeah, I too often went to the Merrifield PO if I had anything in an off-hour that I really wanted to go out. It is frustrating to me that all the supposed full-service POs around here have such limited pickup, nothing after late afternoon or on weekends. But suppose the aforementioned PO fairy dropped us a post office. I expect that it would be similar to the nice new facility in Summerfield or the one in Lady Lake. And it would still need to go to Daytona Beach or wherever they process it. They won't be building a Merrifield in TV, at least not for a long time.

We could also use a Shooter McGees and a Wegman's Grocery

[BOMBERO]

We have a Post Office ( with all the options ) that is golf-cart accessible. You have to leave your computer to get to it.

[noleguy]

I live on the south end and use the full service post office in Fruitland Park. I am closer to it than I have ever been to a post office no matter where I lived previously. Also my mail to family in PA takes no longer to get there than when I was living in Atlanta.

[smalldog]

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm107/smalldog2008/IMG_0171-3.jpg
Smalldog Sez, boy do we need a Post Office, we have at least two zip codes in TV so perhaps like our security, a multi jurisdictional thingy :dontknow:
about Washington, don't trade a head ache for a upset stomach ::)

[swrinfla]

I decided that I should stop by the mobile office outside Sweetbay this morning. Needed a mailing envelope and the appropriate stamps.

When I saw a line of better than a dozen people, I kept on going, 'cause my time was short! Perhaps I'll try again next Thursday, perhaps I'll just drive out to Oxford!

Still, we should have a full-service facility, preferably in Lake Sumter Landing!

SWR