Town of Leland pushes for post office expansion amid rapid population growth

LELAND, NC (WWAY) — The Town of Leland has over 33,000 plus residents who all use one local post office. 

“We were growing and the post office was not.” 

Town of Leland mayor Pro-Tem, Bob Campbell, introduced the item to the town meeting agenda Monday to determine what the council could do to help mitigate the issues. 

Campbell says the consensus of concerns seems to be service times and the current location on Village Road. 

“The distance from where they live to the post office, it’s really not where the population is. Secondly, is the service when they go, there’s not many people there to take care of them,” said Campbell. 

Leland resident Debra Darcelle Gill knows firsthand about those wait times. 

“I went to the post office on Village Road, and I was there approximately 10 AM and did not leave until after 11. I observed that Liz was the only person working at the front desk and there was no one else to assist,” said Gill. 

Gill usually gets her mail at 11 am but says over the past three weeks it’s been coming at 4 pm. 

The post office tells WWAY it temporarily relocated carriers to a nearby facility claiming that rapid growth required a bigger space. 

Space is also on the mind of town council woman Veronica Carter. 

“We still need a new building. You know, that’s a band aid on almost like a sucking chest wound at this point because it’s been going on for so long, and the area keeps growing. So, okay, we fixed it for Christmas, but what about January, February, and all of next year as we continue to grow in this region. The post office as it stands right now is not big enough,” said Carter. 

However, USPS told WWAY that, despite lack of space, there has been no impact on mail or package delivery, with customers receiving first-class mail and packages within 2.7 days. 

The post office is about to receive a resolution from the town, pushing the government to make the changes it needs to accommodate said growth. 

“We’re going to do a resolution hopefully to remind both our federal partners as well as our neighbors, neighboring communities, that this is something that we need to maybe come out in writing and say ‘Look we’ve talked and we’ve talked and we really need something to happen,’” said Carter. 

The resolution is not only going to the USPS, but also Congressman David Rouzer’s office. 

Rouzer’s Chief of Staff Anna McCormack says, “we encourage anyone who has faced delivery or service issues at the Leland post office to contact our office, so we may open an official congressional inquiry on their behalf.” 

The resolution will be written up and presented to the Town Council on Thursday.