Oaks Corners residents get mail delivery after post office closes

The Phelps post office has began mail delivery to the hamlet of Oaks Corners.

It’s been a fight for local residents there since the Oaks Corners Post Office closed.

“Finally,” Michelle Maney recently told the Finger Lakes Times. She and other neighbors have been working on the matter since the old post office was shuttered. “We were even able to keep our Oaks Corners ZIP code: 14518.”

The major issue was for around 20 Cross Road residents who didn’t have home delivery through the post office. They had to walk or drive to the office that was in the hamlet of Oaks Corners.

That worked well-enough until the post office closed in April 2020. The building owner in Oaks Corners knew for approximately 15 months that the lease wasn’t going to be renewed, but residents thought that there would be a better solution.

The Phelps Post Office was an inconvenient drive for most Oaks Corners residents. “Most of our neighbors were pretty upset that Phelps would not deliver,” Maney added to the Times.

A representative for the USPS wound up coming out to Oaks Corners to see the situation for themselves. They inquired about what was available for rent, to possible reopen a post office. But the residents there told them it could be even simpler: Just deliver.

“He ended up at our house and asked if anything was available for rent. We said, ‘It’s just 18 or 19 homes. We don’t need a new post office. It’s not that big of a deal if we can just have it delivered,’” Maney said. “After that, things started happening.”

Mailboxes were recently installed and mail delivery began. Showcasing the importance of local government- Phelps Supervisor Norm Teed, who is up for re-election this year, said town officials met with the residents of Oaks Corners several times about the matter. They also talked with USPS officials from Geneva and Phelps.

Staff Report

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