MONTPELIER, VT — Today, 15 months after the July 2023 floods displaced the downtown Montpelier Post Office and following the advocacy of Vermont’s postal customers, local postal workers, community and State leaders, and the Vermont Congressional Delegation, the U.S. Postal Service announced the opening of a fully-functional retail location at 89 Main Street in Montpelier, which will officially reopen to the public with a ‘Grand Reopening Celebration’ on October 12, 2024. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.) released the following statement:

“For over 450 days, Montpelier’s families, seniors, and businesses have waited for the U.S. Postal Service to stop stalling and reopen the Montpelier Post Office. After being pushed for months to act—by community members, postal workers, local and State leaders, and the Vermont Congressional Delegation—Vermonters will finally have access to this essential service in their own community once again. I will keep fighting for our local USPS workers, and continue my efforts to ensure better service for constituents across Vermont.

“There is no justifiable reason for Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s failures in Montpelier, which for 15 months was the only capital city without a fully functional post office. The agency’s internal benchmarks to restore service after a disaster were entirely dismissed and the USPS’ national management has failed to respond to the needs of Vermont. Our State’s confidence in this essential service has been badly eroded, and we need to see concrete actions by the USPS Board of Governors and the national management to prove they can, indeed, deliver for small and rural communities. If opening a post office—a task this agency has done more than a thousand times in their 250-year history—is too challenging, they should consider a change in leadership.” 

Four months after Vermont’s 2023 floods the USPS temporarily relocated the post office to inoperable mail trucks with no power, bathrooms, or shelter from the elements. Then, PO box and retail postal services were relocated out of Montpelier altogether. Following advocacy by impacted Vermonters, community organizers, concerned workers, the press, and the Vermont Congressional Delegation, the Postal Service announced it had signed a lease for a new retail Post Office. Even after signing a lease, it took USPS an additional five months to open this new space. 

Last week, Senator Welch joined Vermont postal employees and American Postal Workers Union (APWU) members, the Montpelier Commission of Recovery and Resilience, community advocates and postal customers and called on DeJoy and the USPS to reopen the Montpelier Post Office. The Vermont Congressional Delegation last week also demanded DeJoy provide a date by which the USPS will open the Montpelier Post Office.  

Recently, Welch took to the Senate Floor to call out Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s failure to deliver for rural America, pointing to the postal delays plaguing Vermont and other rural communities, and the fight to re-open the Montpelier Post Office. 

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