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Representative Connie Mack joined several local dignitaries at groundbreaking ceremony

Pete Bishop

Naples Daily News

March 26, 2008 - ESTERO - It wasn’t the rain, hail, sleet or snow of postal service legend, but U.S. Rep. Connie Mack and a dozen local officials did endure chillier than usual temperatures Tuesday morning during a ceremonial groundbreaking for Estero’s new post office.

The 4,500-square-foot facility on Three Oaks Parkway just north of Corkscrew Road is scheduled to open November 17.

“It is an exciting day and I’m proud to be part of it,” Mack told the small gathering. “But anything we’re successful about in Southwest Florida, it happens because we’ve come together.”

The new facility is being built on 4.5 acres the U.S. Postal Service purchased from the Lee County School District.

Though the $480,000 land purchase was completed last August, the project is the result of a cooperative effort more than three years in the making, said Meg Judge, chief executive officer of the Estero Chamber of Commerce.

Judge lobbied Mack and other government officials for the post office and helped bring the school district into the mix.

“It’s actually been a decade in the making because that’s how long Estero has needed a post office,” she said.

Estero Postmaster Deborah Rardin says the new building will arrive just in time.

“We’ve grown by nearly 6,000 deliveries since I took office in Jan. 2005, and the building on Broadway was too small then,” she said. “We’ve worked out of a detached trailer and done some other creative maneuvering, but I don’t think we could have survived through next season without a new building.”

The new post office will be used for walk-in customer service and post office boxes, she said.

Letter carriers will still operate out of the existing facility on Broadway Avenue, where all 45 employees currently report for work.

Estero resident Mark Ruchala was picking up mail from his post office box at the crowded Broadway facility late Wednesday morning. He was happy to hear about the groundbreaking.

“A bigger post office will be nice,” he said. “Especially if there’s more parking.”

Thirty-two cars filled the small post office parking lot, four cars were backed up on Broadway waiting for spots and two more cars were parked along the side of the road.

Ruchala said his daily trip to pick up the mail can be a hassle.

“I live off Estero Parkway and I can’t turn left on U.S. 41 to come here,” he said. “And then there’s always people trying to pull out of the ‘in’ drive. I think the new location will be a little easier.”