Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
The Ramsay post office still stands, but not for long. It will eventually be razed, but local people are still in the dark as to the prospect of another post office building.
By KIM E. STROM
Ramsay - Now that Bessemer Township officials have decided to tear down the Ramsay post office building, customers are waiting to hear whether there will be a local post office again.
The U.S. Postal Service closed the facility in March due to structural damage and safety concerns. Bessemer Township owns the building.
Township officials and residents want service restored in another building in Ramsay, Township Supervisor Jeff Randall said in a phone interview Wednesday.
Whether that happens or not depends on the decision made by the facilities management of the U.S. Postal Service, said USPS spokesperson Sabrina Todd. She did not give a timeline on when that decision would be made.
"We appreciate the cooperation of the public," said Todd. "As far as the township is concerned, we certainly want to work with them and provide a place, a building or whatever else we can do to get the post office back."
Facilities management, according to a 2016 report on a USPS website, oversees approximately 32,000 buildings across the country. Using what they call node studies, "Facilities performs strategic planning ... analyzing the processing, delivery and retail use of existing facilities, and current and future local service needs. ... It's vital that we manage and adapt our building portfolio to align with customer and organizational needs at a sustainable cost," the article said.
Currently the township is awaiting results from an asbestos sample that was taken recently. "When the results come back, then we'll know how much it would cost to have it removed," said Randall. "We continue to talk with them, (USPS), about alternatives. They have to do a study on how much mail goes in and how much space they would need," he said. "Once that is determined, we have to look for rental space in a building."
Randall said that the township has offered to build a new space for the postal service. "We want to see the post office back here in town," he said. "From everyone I talked to, they would like to see it back in town."
