By Kathleen Dayton
Staff Writer

    The line snakes along a dividing rail, an S-shaped row of humanity making its patient way to the counter. People shift from foot to foot as they wait their turn.

They are not in line for dinner at the local cafeteria. It’s lunchtime at the Mount Pleasant post office.

“We need another post office. It’s way overdue,” said Gretchen Kaylor, a 32-year Mount Pleasant resident who was mailing a stack of save-the-date announcements for her daughter’s wedding.

Kaylor said she will often pay more for postal services at a UPS store rather than visit Mount Pleasant’s lone post office, but this day she was in need of pretty stamps.

“I’ve stood in line here as long as 45 minutes,” Kaylor said. “Who has that kind of time?”

Kaylor nevertheless had kind words for the Mount Pleasant postal clerks, who daily serve the line of customers who are often trying to knock out a visit to the town’s only post office on their lunch break.

“I can’t say enough about them,” Kaylor said. “They are always, always nice.”

One post office for 62,000

The post office serves a town of approximately 62,000 residents, not counting those who live in the county. The town grew by 24% between 2000 and 2005, becoming the fourth-largest municipality in the state.

Just ask the automated stamp machine about growth at the Mount Pleasant post office. It’s the busiest one in the state.

“I love that thing, when it works,” Kaylor said.

For awhile, there was contentment in the town among those who knew about its “secret” post office, a contract post office located inside Charleston Candle Cottage on Coleman Boulevard. But the store closed Dec. 31, taking postal service with it.

“I was quite disappointed,” said Mary Hutto, who lives and works on the south end of the town. “I never went to the main post office, I only went there because it was close to my job and I could go on my lunch hour.”

The town is inching closer to getting another contract post office, but it may be months before one opens.

“We’re awaiting (businesses’) responses. The earliest we might be open again with a contract post office in Mount Pleasant would be about four months,” said Harry Spratlin, postal service communications director in Columbia.

But the proposed legislation doesn’t Town Postmaster Bob Bergdorf could not be reached for comment but has said that the town is on a waiting list for a new post office. The U.S. Postal Service keeps a tight rein on costs, however, and is not throwing up new facilities with abandon. The town must compete with other growing municipalities across the nation that are clamoring for new facilities.

Mount Pleasant Town Council voted Jan. 8 to ask U.S. Rep. Henry Brown, R-S.C,. and U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., for help in securing federal funds for a new post office on the town’s north end.

“The north part of the town has grown tremendously,” said Town Councilman Gary Santos. “People say you can just drive to Awendaw or Huger, but that’s not the point. People shouldn’t have to go outside of their municipality to go to the post office.”

A long time coming

Even if Mount Pleasant got the nod of approval for a new postal facility, several years would pass while the property was acquired and the building completed.

Another reason Santos feels the post office is necessary is because the current post office is in one of Mount Pleasant’s most congested areas. It hugs a sharp curve on the Johnnie Dodds Boulevard frontage road and postal customers heading back southbound must make a left turn across two lanes of traffic on Anna Knapp Boulevard to get back on Johnnie Dodds.

“The intersections that surround the post office are all failing intersections right now. It’s just crazy,” Santos said. “It’s not about the employees. They have wonderful people working there. It’s about the facilities. You can’t put six pounds of mud in a five-pound bag. I think I’d rather have a tooth filled than go to the post office.”

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