Golden renews push to secure reopening of West Paris Post Office

WASHINGTON — Congressman Jared Golden (ME-02) today demanded answers from U.S. Postal Service (USPS) Postmaster General Louis DeJoy over the agency’s delay in reopening the West Paris Post Office — which has been closed for nearly four years — despite having signed a new lease last August.

“I continue to hear almost daily from constituents whose lives are made harder by the lack of a post office in West Paris," Golden said. “At bare minimum, residents deserve to know how much longer they have to wait for the return of basic mail services in their own community. With the Postal Service having already signed a new lease — the originally stated reason for the closure — it’s beyond time for the agency to show some real progress.”

In his letter, Golden called on DeJoy to stop dodging questions and provide information and updates about the process for reestablishing services in West Paris. 

The USPS closed the former post office in 2021 while the agency negotiated a new lease for the property. Golden, joined by postal workers and customers, repeatedly urged Postmaster General DeJoy to assure a new site would be secured due to local uncertainty it would ever return. They also demanded clear, transparent updates about the process. The USPS often ignored requests for information for months, and provided vague and noncommittal answers when they did respond.

USPS released its original timeline of a May 2024 reopening after Golden’s inquiries, and he again contacted Postmaster General DeJoy directly when that deadline passed. Two months later, the agency announced that it had signed a lease to reopen the West Paris post office at the site of the former Ledgeview Living Center on 141 Bethel Road. 

“The long‐term disruption of service, of over 2.5 years, in this rural community of West Paris is unacceptable. The Postal Service has an obligation to provide service to everyone. The APWU of Maine applauds Congressman Jared Golden’s advocacy for this community through persistent nquiries directed at Postmaster Louis Dejoy," said Selena Garside and Jennifer Garland, president and executive vice president, respectively, of the American Postal Workers Union of Maine. “Residents of West Paris must travel 30 minutes or more, round trip, in the wintertime to access their P.O. Box mail, parcels and medications, purchase money orders and pay their bills. Rural small businesses, senior citizens, veterans and the entire community are suffering an extended and undue hardship, with increased cost of fuel and potential health risks of not receiving medication in a timely manner. Small Post Offices are an integral community resource. The West Paris community deserves expediency and transparency in getting this Post Office re‐opened.”

In the face of efforts to diminish service and close rural post offices, Golden has worked to protect postal service for rural Mainers throughout his time in Congress. Following his outreach to Postmaster General DeJoy in 2023, USPS reopened its Etna facility that had been closed for more than two years. Last year, USPS announced that it was postponing plans to consolidate the Eastern Maine Processing & Distribution Facility in Hampden after bipartisan efforts led by Golden and other members of Congress. 

Golden’s letter can be found here and is included below in full:

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February 4, 2025
 

Mr. Louis DeJoy
Postmaster General
United States Postal Service
75 L ’Enfant Plaza SW
Washington, D.C. 20260-1000
 

Dear Postmaster General DeJoy:

I am writing to you again to request a complete and thorough update on the construction and reopening of the West Paris Post Office, as well as to express my continued disappointment in the lack of transparency by the United States Postal Service (USPS). I continue to hear almost daily from my constituents who continue to be adversely impacted by the lack of an operating USPS facility in West Paris.

After three years of uncertainty for West Paris and its surrounding communities, and following repeated outreach from me and my office, the USPS executed a lease for a new post office in West Paris on August 5th, 2024. At that time, your agency assured both me and my constituents that the renovations required to convert the building into a new post office – constructing a new lobby area and installing retail counters specific to the facility would take two hundred and seventy-five days. Following this stage of renovations, the USPS must then install equipment necessary for the daily operation of the facility that takes an unspecified amount of time. Yet, when pressed for further information to better understand how long installation of this equipment at similar projects has taken, the USPS was less than forthcoming, putting any indication of an on-time reopening into question.

Since those inquiries, my team and I continue to experience the same lack of transparency and an

unwillingness to share minor details that my constituents have become accustomed to when attempting to gather information from the USPS. That is why I am once again reaching out to you in the hopes of providing communities I represent with much-needed clarity as to when they can expect postal services to be accessible to them at the West Paris facility.

To that end, I ask the following:

• What is the average amount of time it takes for USPS to renovate, install, and reopen a post office building?
• What factors have inhibited the Postal Service from being able to provide substantive updates of the progress of an ongoing renovation and installation process?
• Given the USPS operated a post office in West Paris previously, where did the Postal Service relocate the equipment from the previous office during the three years it has been closed?
• What is the current status of the West Paris Post Office? Has USPS finished renovating the building? Has USPS started installing the necessary equipment?
• What Congressional action is necessary to assist the Postal Service in its process to reopen a facility?

I sincerely hope that the town of West Paris can celebrate the reopening of its post office before we recognize the fourth anniversary of its closure. The Town’s residents and those in the surrounding communities deserve timely and efficient service from the United States Postal Service.

I appreciate your prompt attention to this matter.

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