Steve Hilbert said that he has been trying the renew the USPS’ lease for almost a year as they negotiate to get damage to the property fixed. USPS has declined to comment any further on its operations in Ray Brook.

The Ray Brook Post Office is temporarily closing on Aug. 29 as USPS weighs its options, and it is sending P.O. box customers to pick up their mail in Saranac Lake, around 3 miles down the road.

“We were notified that our lease at the Ray Brook Post Office will expire Aug. 28,” USPS spokesperson Mark Lawrence wrote in an email to the Enterprise on Friday. He said they were exploring options to continue mail service there, but that they did not have further information at that time.

But Hilbert says the lease actually expired last year and he’s been renting the building on a month-by-month basis as they’ve been in the middle of negotiating payment for some well-needed repairs. His plan has been to keep the post office as a tenant through the repair process and sign a new long-term lease when he gets paid for the work.

The landlord of the Ray Brook Post Office property says he wants the postal service to stay where it is, but he’s negotiating with USPS to fix damages to the property, including this security pole, which has been hit, creating a crack in the blacktop where rainwater seeps in and heaves up large stones under the parking lot in the winter. (Provided photo — Lisa Storey)

Hilbert said he’s been asking USPS to fix these issues for a few years. Every time he signs a new lease, he said nothing happens and the cycle repeats. This year, both gave the other an ultimatum to finally fix the issues.

In the winter, Hilbert said he sent an email to the USPS asking for the repairs, and that USPS responded telling him to get these things fixed in 30 days. Otherwise, they wouldn’t renew their lease at his expense — he’d have to pay for the move. He agreed to get the work done but told them he couldn’t do it during the winter, and they worked out an agreement where he would pay for the work and USPS would reimburse him.

Three weeks ago, Hilbert said he sent USPS estimates for the work but as of Monday, he said he had not heard back yet.

“After multiple phone calls and Zoom meetings through all the chains of command and meeting with contractors to get estimates, all communication stopped,” Hilbert wrote in an email to the Enterprise.

He said he’s been communicating with people all over — locally, regionally and in Washington, D.C.

The landlord of the Ray Brook Post Office property says he wants the postal service to stay where it is, but he’s negotiating with USPS to fix damages to the property, including the parking lot, which needs to be repaved. (Provided photo — Lisa Storey)

“We were right in the midst of doing all that when everybody got letters in their mailbox that they are leaving,” Hilbert said. “I surely don’t want them to leave.”

Somewhere, he believes there’s been a miscommunication in the chain of command and the letter to postal customers was sent “preemptively.”

Hilbert wants to work something out. USPS has been a tenant in that building as long as he’s owned it — for at least 25 years. It’s his “bread and butter,” he said, and he has a P.O. box there himself.

Hilbert said numerous people from Lake Placid and Saranac Lake — particularly the elderly and people with mobility issues — come to the Ray Brook office to do their mailing and USPS paperwork because it is a lot easier to access than their local offices.

The Lake Placid and Saranac Lake post offices are both on busy main roads with limited parking.

He said he’s been getting calls from people who are afraid or unhappy.

“All the fingers are pointed at me,” Hilbert said.

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The pole and the damage done

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The blacktop in the post office’s parking lot needs repaving. That’s the main repair. Hilbert said the estimate for the work came back at $46,000.

A security pole USPS installed to keep delivery trucks from backing into the loading bay has been hit and the concrete has heaved, letting water into a large crack where it seeps under the blacktop, compromising the foundation in a corner of the building and heaving up rocks under the pavement in the winter, creating mounds. A patch for a handicap parking spot in the public lot did the same, creating a three-inch rise Hilbert said is a tripping hazard.

Before the addition of the pole and the handicap patch, Hilbert said rainwater ran off the parking lot and into gutters in the street. Now, he said it seeps underneath.

There are also repairs needed to a lamp post, a walkway and a door.

Hilbert said all these damages are the result of safety measures the USPS takes on the property, so he feels the government should pay for them.

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No disruption of prison postal expected

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This post office processes all the mail for the two state and federal prisons, which are close by. Processing of inmates’ mail will move to Saranac Lake for the time being.

State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision spokesperson Rachel Connors said they do not anticipate the post office relocation to have any impact on letters or packages being received by incarcerated individuals at Adirondack Correctional Facility.

Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesperson Donald Murphy said the BOP has been “assured” the temporary move will have “no negative impacts” on mail service for the inmates at the Federal Correctional Institution at Ray Brook.

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Post office history

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The Ray Brook Post office has been in its current location, a former motel, since 1978, according to Historic Saranac Lake’s LocalWiki website. It moved there ahead of the 1980 Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid from its previous location at the Ray Brook State Tuberculosis Hospital — what is now the Adirondack Correctional state prison. Before that, it had been at a train station. When the post office opened, it was near where State Police Troop B headquarters are.

The Saranac Lake Post Office at 51 Broadway is open from 6:30 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. on weekdays and from 6:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. on Saturday. It is not open on Sundays. The window retail service at the office is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Saturday.