On Monday, the notice went up in the Lihue Post Office:
“The United States Postal Service, in accordance with its community contact policies, is taking public comments related to the disposal action of an approximately 17,119 square foot building located at 4441 Rice St, Lihue, HI. This property has been determined by the Postal Service to be excess and is no longer necessary for Postal operations.”
And Kauai being Kauai (despite incredible pressure for it to become something else), the word quickly got around town, perhaps with a tone that could be described as “Wait, whaaaat?” Aided by social media, when word goes around town on Kauai these days, it travels with even greater speed and indignation.
Even the County of Kauai posted a pic of the paper notice on its Facebook page with a note: “We are still trying to understand the details of the letter and proposed course of action and will share with the public as we learn more. Mahalo!”
| COMMENTS ACCEPTED
The Postal Service is accepting written comments regarding the Lihue Post Office proposal through Feb. 8:
>> Contact via mail: Jody Lowe, Real Estate Specialist, USPS Facilities Office, P.O. Box 27497, Greensboro, NC 27498-1103
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On Wednesday, the Postal Service clarified that the proposal being considered is to consolidate retail operations from the Rice Street building with its Carrier Annex facility at 3230 Kapule Highway near the Lihue Airport.
“This location would provide much improved access for Lihue postal customers, who have had to deal with increasingly challenging parking and access issues at our 4441 Rice Street facility over the years,” the news release said.
Kauai being Kauai, the increasingly challenging parking isn’t reason enough for change in some people’s estimation. Just walk, people say. Most of the folks who go there are old timers who like to stand in line and talk story or people who work in the banks or county building nearby who can just walk over.
Leave it how it is, in one of the prettiest old buildings on scruffy Rice Street, a one-story Mission Revival with rows of rectangular glass panes and a tiled roof.
The future of the building has not been decided. A public meeting on the proposed consolidation will be held Feb. 23 at 6 p.m. at the War Memorial Convention Hall. If the consolidation goes through, the Postal Service would solicit offers for the building.
People on Kauai fought for that building from the start.
The Lihue Post Office was dedicated in 1939 after a 12-year campaign to secure federal funds and find a suitable architectural design. The nomination papers for the building’s successful inclusion into the National Register of Historic Places contain an extremely detailed narrative of the building’s history, including stories of how the initial design was widely despised and dubbed a “flat-roof cracker box” by the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
The Garden Island’s coverage of the 1939 dedication noted, “To the credit of Kauai, it refused to accept the monstrosity offered and made a stern protest to Washington” for a prettier building. Even back then, it seems, Kauai was Kauai.
There are those, though, for whom the parking situation is a huge imposition and the thought of a better alternative on the horizon is a hopeful, progressive thing. That is Kauai, too. It is not an island of easy consensus.
Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.
