Chubbuck Post Office To Close As Mayors Try To Save Another

The battle of the post office continues: The Chubbuck Post Office has been notified that it will close by the end of March.

The closure comes as Pocatello fights to keep its processing center open.

The closures are happening to thousands of contract post offices all over the country. Chubbuck’s post office was owned and operated by a contracting company, not the United States Postal Service. When USPS union workers’ jobs are threatened, as they are now, the Postal Service made an agreement to close any contract offices first in order to save those union jobs.

But for Mark DeVisser, it’s not just the union versus contract jobs. His family has owned the Chubbuck Post Office in one location or another for the past 40 years.

“It’s really sad to see for the citizens and the community of Chubbuck, because, you know, they’ve worked really hard … to establish their own post office,” DeVisser said.

The P.O. boxes there are already being moved over to the Gateway Station in Pocatello. In little ways like that, the closure steals some of Chubbuck’s independence from Pocatello, he said.

“You know, you kind of take away from the community as a separate entity from Pocatello,” DeVisser said.

Chubbuck Mayor Steve England said the post office was a convenience for the community.

“It’s going to be missed to not have a Chubbuck post office,” England said.

But the closing of the Chubbuck office was out of England’s hands. He is focused on keeping the Gateway processing center from being closed. Last week, he, Pocatello Mayor Brian Blad and Stephanie Palagi with Old Town Inc. traveled to Washington, D.C., to find out how to save the place.

“It’s more a matter of writing letters, writing letters to the right people … that it’s timely and that we’ll also have hot-button issues that maybe will stand out in the things that we say,” England said.

But with the closure moratorium ending on May 15, it’s only a matter of time before England finds out if the processing center closes.

“I think we need to feel optimistic, and I think it’s important that we do what we can to preserve what we have,” he said.

The group also met with both senators and Rep. Mike Simpson, and England said felt like they were able to work out some issues.

Chubbuck may look into having post office services inside a grocery store or the mall, England said.