PORT TOWNSEND — The Postal Service is still investigating what to do with the historic building housing the post office — and has made no decisions yet.
“We are still going through the process and still making decisions about what to do with the building,” Katherine Young, a representative of the Postal Service from the Seattle District told about 120 people at a meeting Thursday night.
The Postal Service hasn’t sold the 115-year-old Port Townsend Customs House building and would find it difficult to adapt the structure to be accessible to the handicapped, officials said at the meeting called by the Governor’s Committee on Disability Issues.
Young said the next step is to finish the process of surveying the building and to report the results of the meeting to her superiors.
“I think the best thing now would be to take a deep breath and let things run their course,” Young said.
“This is going to take time.”
The spirited two-hour community discussion was prompted both by concerns about accessibility for the disabled into the building, which has steep stairs leading to its front door, and discussions about a selling the building.
“We haven’t sold the building, and we haven’t moved it out by the airport,” said Young, remarking on a proliferation of rumors about the former Customs House that houses the post office.
“We haven’t hired a Realtor. No decisions have been made yet.”
Port Townsend Deputy Mayor George Randels told Young, “All I want to say is, come to us, talk to us, before you hire a Realtor.”
Last October, Port Townsend resident Bonnie Bolster collected 940 signatures and filed a complaint under the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968 and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, saying the building is not accessible to those who find it hard to climb stairs.
She opened the meeting by talking about her concerns with the building.
“When a group is excluded it is harmed and the community suffers,” she said.
