Postal Service Hopes To Replace Downtown Coeur D’Alene Post Office
Dr. Fox, your prayers may be answered. But don’t hold your breath. It may take at least a year and a half.
Coeur d’Alene’s venerable physician Dr. E.R.W. (Ted) Fox for years has written polite letters to the post office. Each time he has suggested a solution be found for (Dr. Fox is so polite that in no way could this be called whining or complaining) the absolutely inadequate parking situation at the downtown Coeur d’Alene post office.
Nearly everyone who has ever attempted to use the facility knows the place has a whopping seven spaces, including the handicapped spot. To make matters worse, the lot has a difficult entry right at the stoplight at Seventh Street and Lakeside Avenue. When you try to enter the lot and find it full with others waiting, the rear of your car sticks into the street. You get a little nervous. The young tree planted adjacent to the postage stamp-size lot has been run over at least twice.
The problem is that the post office has no room to expand parking. The large lot to the rear is used for postal carriers to pick up deliveries.
Last year, the post office advertisement for an existing building to convert into a carrier annex had no acceptable offers, according to Postmaster Ron Carroll. The object was to find a large building (about 15,000 square feet) with large parking and loading area and central accessibility along the Appleway corridor. The contenders included the old Pay ‘n Pak building, the old Coeur d’Alene Bible Church and an area behind Montgomery Ward. None panned out.
Since the attempt to find an existing building didn’t work, in July the post office will advertise for bids for an owner to build a new facility and lease it to the government.
“We are having the building designed, and bids would need to include what they would charge to construct the building to our specifications on a selected two-acre site,” Carroll said. “Our optimum occupancy would be late spring of 1996.”
The post office would move most of its 75 employees and mail distribution services to this carrier annex, leaving the downtown building as a retail postal store, Carroll said. The entry would face Lakeside Avenue, and parking would be on the west and east sides of the building.
Items such as stamps, envelopes and packaging would be available on racks and shelves just as they are in a retail store.
Can this change really happen? The twoacre plots in the Appleway corridor definitely are limited. Now the wound is opened, Doc. We hope the problem can be solved before side effects set in.
Shields Produce will open an outlet at ABC Storage Center, 2655 E. Seltice (across from Whistlestop Center), Post Falls, a week from now. The seasonal fruit and vegetable retail store will feature local crops through October.
Original owner Gary Shields has had the original store at 302 Linden Ave., Coeur d’Alene, for 22 years and was joined last year by the Jim Dixon family. Eight members of the two families will run both stores. Hours will be 9 to 5:30 Monday through Saturday. The owners are hoping to expand to additional locations next summer.
Watch for a major remodel of Coeur d’Alene’s Holiday Inn after the tourist season. Hoping to attract more year-round business, the hotel plans to add 8,000 square feet to its convention center and an indoor pool and fitness center. The addition will be on the southwest area of the present 122-room facility. No guest rooms will be added, although the entrance and lobby will be renovated.
The current conference center of 2,500 square feet will be expanded to 12,000 square feet, with three rooms (with dividers allowing eight) that can accommodate 400 people. The project should be complete next spring.
Peter Faust of Coeur d’Alene was the winner of last week’s translation contest. Calling at 7:20 a.m. on publication day, the Tomlinson Realty employee correctly translated the mis-phonetically pronounced “Say-lu-la-row-nee” to Cellular One, which was written in all caps and no space on a T-shirt. Runner-up was Stephanie Childress of Coeur d’Alene.
The third successful caller, North Idaho College language and translation specialist Gene Leroy corrected my mispronunciation of the original mispronunciation, saying I should have misphonetically written it as “cze-lu-la-row-nee.” Gosh. I’m a Montana Swede, Gene.
Anyone have a similar puzzle?