Don’t expect a post office closure in Sedona anytime soon.
While talk has circulated regarding the closure of the post office in West Sedona, Sedona Postmaster Dave Cartlidge said not to expect any news on the closure anytime soon.
Cartlidge said a recent moratorium on the closure of post office locations halted any movement on the possible closure for the West Sedona branch.
“At this time the moratorium is until May 15, and that’s nationwide. At this point I have no more information,” Cartlidge said. “There are no decisions. It was just in the review process.”
At this time, the West Sedona office will operate as usual, Cartlidge said.
“It came up [for closure] a couple [of] years ago also. It’s just going through the cycles,” Cartlidge said.
On Feb. 7, postal service representatives scheduled a meeting at West Sedona School to discuss the possible closure and what that would mean to residents in Sedona. That meeting was later canceled following news of the moratorium. Cartlidge said the meeting was initially designed to be part of the research process.
“Basically, they were collecting information on different facilities and it was canceled per the district, the Arizona-New Mexico District. It’s all one big office,” Cartlidge said.
A survey was also mailed out to residents seeking input on the post office, he added.
“It was a survey that asked about usage of the facility, what it’s used for — to mail letters, parcels, to pick up parcels, just general questions,” Cartlidge said.
There are currently three post office locations in the Sedona area. Two are found in Sedona, one near the roundabout in Uptown and one in West Sedona. A third post office is located in the Village of Oak Creek.
The U.S. Postal Service examined over 3,500 post office locations nationwide for possible closure, some located in Arizona. The agency operates over 31,000 locations across the country, down from approximately 38,000 offices in 2001. Over 200 offices were closed nationwide in 2011, according to the Postal Service website.
