By Julie McCay Turner
Tuesday was a very big day.
The Bedford Post Office has ended its almost 20-month displacement in a veteran trailer and temporary enclosure in a distant parking lot corner. At 8 am on Tuesday, the post office reopened in its handsome and newly built-out retail quarters at Bedford Marketplace.
The dedication of Bedford’s postal workers over those months gives new meaning to the old adage “Neither snow nor rain nor heat” stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”
Although the weather was more or less cooperative, “It was a very challenging time,” Bedford Postmaster William Booker said, noting difficulties in keeping the enclosure warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
And while Bedford postal patrons are grateful to the staff for their service under difficult conditions, “The staff is grateful to Bedford’s customers,” Booker continued. Many customers continued to visit the temporary installation through the duration, inclement weather notwithstanding, rather than decamp to nearby post offices.
Former Citizen of the Year Don Marshall was one of those customers, and when the doors to the new space opened at 8 am, he was one of the first arrivals, delivering an orchid plant as a token of his appreciation.
The new space is narrow but deep and at 2,200 square feet is1,000 square feet larger than the retail space that closed in August 2015. Postmaster Booker explained that this is the first up-to-date facility for Bedford in recent memory. The colonial-style brick building where mail was sorted before the structure was razed, had been dedicated during President John F. Kennedy’s administration, and the prior Marketplace retail space was less than optimal.
The weekend move was a complex logistical endeavor, accomplished primarily between the time the trailers closed on Saturday afternoon, and 8 am on Tuesday morning.
One of the most intricate aspects of the move involved post box keys. Each box holder needs new keys, but the old keys need to be marked and carefully stored because they will travel along with the trailer for use at its next location.
Postmaster Booker gave high compliments to Bedford’s staff. The town’s postal workers are familiar to the local patrons and have been in place for many years. Postmaster Booker first came to Bedford in 2005 and returned in 2010 after assignments in Concord, Boston, and Clinton. “I came back on account of the staff,” Booker noted. “Bedford’s clerks are “fabulous, the best.”
District Manager Mark Howell may have said it best of all. According to Postmaster Booker, he was instructed to “Make it work on Day One. I want our employees in place, and I want them taken care of.”
A grand reopening ceremony is planned within the next few weeks.
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