By Jeanne Sager
rFREMONT CENTER —April 30, 2004 – Residents of Fremont Center are cautiously optimistic.
United States Postal officials were in town a week ago to answer calls from the townspeople as well as high-ranking government officials about the lease set to run out on the current post office.
They picked a new site up the road from the current facility, a lot owned by Matt Hubert that a trailer could be placed on to serve the public.
The current post office is in retired Postmistress Ida Rosenberger’s home.
But when she got a letter stating that the office would be closed May 31, the town turned on its head.
The proposal to combine the post office with the Obernburg facility right up the road wasn’t satisfactory, Rosenberger said.
It’s located on a dangerous stretch of road and has no parking to speak of, said a resolution passed by the Town of Fremont Board in support of keeping a postal facility in Fremont Center proper.
Letters from Congressman Maurice Hinchey and State Senator John Bonacic were joined by petitions from town residents and pleas from Town Supervisor Jim Greier and Legislator Rodney Gaebel to keep the post office in Fremont Center, where it has been for more than 150 years.
With all the support, things are looking up.
“But we’re still fighting the forces that want it closed,” Rosenberger noted. “We have to keep fighting.”
For now, Rosenberger is still talking over the lease on her building with the postal service while Hubert negotiates to have a trailer brought in and outfitted to serve as a postal facility.