Postal facility plan gets no bites

By Anthony V. Coppola, Staff Writer
   EAST WINDSOR — The prospect of a small postal facility in Twin Rivers is now at least 12 to 18 months away, after no business owners in that section of the township returned letters of solicitation gauging interest in hosting a center.
   Darleen Reid, a spokeswoman for the Central New Jersey District of the Postal Service, said this week that about 30 letters were mailed Aug. 1, with a Sept. 1 return deadline.
   ”A solicitation can be tried again in six months,” she said Monday.
   Had the district office received responses, it would then have reviewed the results and visited potential suitors to determine if they could successfully operate a postal facility, Ms. Reid said.
   She previously said the review of interested businesses and a formal decision could take up to a year to complete.
   The proposed facility in Twin Rivers would be a “contract postal unit” — capable of handling all postal functions except P.O. boxes and money orders.
   Ms. Reid said there are about 4,000 contract postal units throughout the United States, with the closest located inside Marrazzo’s Grocery Market in Robbinsville.
   The possibility for such a facility in East Windsor arose in June.
   Speaking at a town hall meeting at the Perry L. Drew Elementary School, Pidge Carroll, a spokeswoman for Congressman Chris Smith’s office, said feedback from local residents complaining about long waits at the Hightstown Post Office prompted an evaluation by a congressional liaison who confirmed a “crowding problem” there.
   The Hightstown facility on Mercer Street, and the Postal Service offices in Cranbury and Windsor are the closest full-service options for East Windsor’s 27,000 residents.
   Mayor Janice Mironov, who attended the June town hall meeting and previously said a township facility would be “welcomed,” declined to comment on the lack of interest from Twin Rivers business owners.