(Houston) -- One of the fixtures that made Houston feel like a big city has been canceled like last year's stamps, as Houston has closed its airport post office that had been open 365-days a year at all hours.
A sign is up in the former all-night post office on Lee Road, advertising that the space is available and looking for a new tenant.
Before moving to the Lee Road cargo terminal area, the US Postal Service maintained its 24/7 operation just west of John F. Kennedy Boulevard, the airport's main entrance.
If you wanted to avoid long lines during the day, or you had something urgent to mail off as soon as possible, it was always neat to rely on a post office that was open at 2 a.m. on Christmas morning if needed.
But the Postal Service lost $9-billion last year, causing the government agency to once again publicize a higher priced stamp is on the way. They're planning to discontinue another staple of the service nationwide in the coming months, when we'll all lose Saturday mail delivery.
In Houston, a few neighborhood post offices are on the chopping block, and the main Post Office branch on Franklin Street in downtown Houston is about to go away forever.
The Post Office announced it was selling the property, which would move its main hub to another neighborhood branch, likely in northeast Houston.
Given how the Post Office is bleeding losses by the hour, it should probably come as no surprise that the 24/7 post office is gone forever. During some late night hours, you'd walk in and find 4 clerks manning empty counters.
It left you wondering why your neighborhood post office couldn't staff a full 4 positions during the peak rush periods. Does that make any sense? Your neighborhood post office has cut down to one or two clerks while half-a-dozen other cash registers and scales sit empty, and yet this overnight station would have workers manning registers that had no customers. It certainly lends itself to the argument that mismanangement is one big reason for the Post Office's financial woes.
The Post Office airport station has now moved to a strip shopping center on FM 1960 just west of Lee Road, where a sign on the door advises it's open until 10 p.m. seven days a week, excluding holidays.
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