FREEHOLD — Congressman Chris Smith met with regional United States Postal Service (USPS) officials on March 16, along with government officials from Freehold Borough, Freehold Township, Monmouth County and the 12th State Legislative District in an effort to dissuade postal officials from going forward with a proposal to close the Freehold Downtown post office station in the borough.
The 800-square-foot post office trailer has 760 post office boxes and has been open for nearly eight years on land provided free of charge by Monmouth County on Lafayette Street behind the Monmouth County Hall of Records.
The facility has a parking lot, but is used by significant pedestrian traffic from the nearby county administration offices, the state Superior Court complex and municipal offices, plus the businesses and offices along Main Street in a 2-square-mile town which has more than 11,000 residents, according to a press release from Smith’s office.
“We had a productive meeting and postal officials said no final conclusions have been made,” Smith said. “Closing the Freehold Downtown Station and shifting its business to Freehold Township would be a major mistake. It makes borough residents and employees from surrounding offices who now walk to the station drive a nearly 5-mile trip to check their post office boxes or buy stamps. It puts a lot of cars on the road and sends them to an overcrowded, congested facility.”
According to the press release, the USPS is considering closing the Freehold Borough facility and steering the traffic to the heavily used Freehold Township post office on Route 537, which is 2.4 miles west of downtown Freehold in the Raintree Towne Center.
Residents from the eastern areas of Freehold Township would have an even longer drive to reach the Raintree post office.
The Raintree shopping center is extremely congested, with little post office parking available in a narrow, bottleneck configuration, according to the press release.
USPS officials said construction could address the congestion, however, Freehold Township officials were
quick to note that improvements
to the Raintree site that have been proposed over the years have never materialized.
In attendance at the March 16 meeting were Smith, USPS Central New Jersey District Manager Priscilla Maney, Freehold Postmaster Leonard Oaks, Freehold Borough Mayor Michael Wilson, Freehold Township Deputy Mayor Anthony Ammiano, Freehold Township Committeewoman Dorothy H. Avallone, Monmouth County Freeholder Director Barbara McMorrow, and other officials.
Maney, who will make the decision to keep the Freehold Downtown post office station open or close it, said she is also considering a contract postal unit (CPU) which would have most USPS services in a business such as a pharmacy or store.
Smith noted that every town in the 21 counties in New Jersey which hosts its county seat of government has its own postal facility, some more than one. Additionally, more than one-third of those are in towns smaller than Freehold Borough, he said.
“Monmouth County is the fourth most populous county in New Jersey and its seat of government – Freehold Borough – should have its own postal facility,” Smith said.

