Lynners will get chance to question post office move

LYNN – West Lynn residents will have two chances to raise concerns and offer ideas about local mail service before federal officials complete plans to close the Western Avenue post office and relocate its services.?We?re at the very initial stages and this is a pretty lengthy process,” Postal Service spokeswoman Melissa Lohnes said Thursday.The Postal Service in June announced officials are studying a plan to downsize West Lynn services by moving out of the 5,500 square foot post office at 776 Western Ave. and into a location about a fifth that size. The new site has not been chosen.Lohnes said the plan will not move forward until after postal officials present their plans at a City Council hearing and listen to local residents? and elected officials? views on the West Lynn changes.Postal officials will make a decision on the plan and announce it after reviewing local comments. Local residents will then have a 30-day opportunity to appeal the decision and a final decision on changing West Lynn service will not be made until after comments offered during the appeal period are reviewed.?If we decide to move ahead, there will be full retail services at the new location and non interruption in residential and commercial service,” Lohnes said.She said the relocation plan includes moving West Lynn letter carriers into “underutilized” space in the main post office on Willow Street.Local officials have already told postal officials what they think about the potential service change.?I asked them to assure me they would retain a presence in West Lynn,” Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy said.City Council President Timothy Phelan, in a July letter to postal officials, said vacant Federal Street land owned by Swampscott resident Charles Patsios could be a potential post office site. The land is located across Federal Street from the Factory of the Future building, a former General Electric plant that Patsios has slated for conversion into a Market Basket store.Phelan also noted in the letter that Ward 6 Councilor Peter Capano sees the Federal Street land as a possible post office site.The Postal Service has operated a branch in 776 Western Ave. since 1942 and reviewed proposals to close the branch on several occasions since then.