It’s been about two weeks since the post office in Nikiski closed abruptly. The move has forced hundreds of residents of the unincorporated community to drive to Kenai to pick up letters, packages and other items that would have been sent to their local P.O. box. And many want answers about when mail service will return to Nikiski.
On Friday afternoon, Jack Porter stood in a line about ten people deep at the Kenai Post Office. The post office is usually bustling with activity. But lately, the activity has been more of a flurry. That’s because hundreds of Nikiski residents have been rerouted to Kenai to pick up their mail.
“You don’t do it every day, that’s for sure,” Porter said. “Whereas, when it was out there, I did go almost every day.”
Porter said it takes him about 20 minutes to get from his house to the Kenai Post Office. For some, the drive is longer.
“That’s pretty substantial, you know?” he said.
The Nikiski Post Office is in a squat gray building right off the Kenai Spur Highway. It occupies one chunk of a complex that also houses an ice cream shop and a tanning salon.
On Tuesday a handwritten sign taped to the front door said “CLOSED 8.22.” A more official sign branded with the United States Postal Service read, “Due to unforeseen circumstances, this office will be temporarily closed.”
The Nikiski location is technically what’s called a contract postal unit, or CPU. That means the location offers most postal services, but it’s not run by the U.S. Postal Service. Instead, the space is run independently as a business which has a contract with the postal service and employs non-federal workers.
“Either the Postal Service or the CPU operator can choose to go ahead and end that contract,” said James Boxrud. He’s a spokesperson for the U.S. Postal Services’ Western/Pacific region, which includes Alaska. “In this case, from what I've been briefed, is we chose to end that contract.”
But Boxrud said he doesn’t know why the postal service chose to end the Nikiski contract, but that the information might be “proprietary.”
“You're not going to find anybody that's going to probably talk about the specifics of the contract,” he said.
As a contract post office, there were already some services that weren’t available at the Nikiski location, like passport photos. But a little over a month before the location totally closed, the postal service announced it was temporarily suspending retail services. That meant the location no longer sold stamps, or anything else that required a financial transaction.
Boxrud said he has “no knowledge” of why the post office suspended retail services, but said the move “does sound odd.”
“The Postal Service remains committed to the Nikiski community and looks forward to continuing to meet its mailing and shipping needs,” he said.
When it was open, the Nikiski Post Office had about 1,000 P.O. boxes available, about 600 of which were in use. Boxrud said that metric is important as they try to find a new location.
“There's some algorithm that says, hey, we need X amount of square feet,” he said. “And not only that, we also need adequate parking. And we look for things that are, you know, accessible for handicap – have handicap parking, things along those lines.”
Since the post office closed, residents and local leaders have been sounding the alarm about the need for temporary and long-term solutions. But Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Peter Micciche said those solutions have to come from the postal service, which is a federal rather than borough or state entity.
As of Friday, Micciche said the borough’s North Peninsula Recreation Center was one of two places being floated for temporary use, alongside the North Kenai Community Club. But no decisions have been made, yet. Micciche says something needs to happen, sooner rather than later.
“There's been some misdirected medications and things that it's pretty important, and a lot of folks just aren't mobile enough to get into Kenai,” he said. “And it's been a strain, not only for Nikiski folks, but Kenai folks as well as the lines have essentially doubled since the Nikiski delivery has been shut down, if you will.”
Back in Kenai, Jack Porter queued up in front of a window that’s being temporarily used for Nikiski residents. It’s separate from the main counter, where a steady stream of Kenai customers filter in and out with boxes and letters.
More than anything, Porter said he wants answers.
“The thing is, we're sitting here not knowing what's going on or what's going to happen. Nobody's telling us anything,” he said. “And that's, you know, they should at least say, ‘Here's the problem, and this is what we're going to do to fix it.’ Nobody's doing that.”
While he’s in Kenai, Porter said he’s going to do some grocery shopping before heading back north.
Mail pickup for Nikiski box holders and post office retail services are available at the Kenai Post Office at 140 Bidarka Street, Monday through Friday from 8:45 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Identification is required to pick up Nikiski mail.
