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ESTERO - Estero unofficially opened its 4,500-square-foot post office on Three Oaks Parkway on Monday.

Local business and government leaders attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony and presentation of its first post office box key to the Estero Chamber of Commerce, which was largely instrumental in making a 10-year dream a reality.

“This was something we dreamed about for a long time,” said Meg Judge, president of the Estero Chamber of Commerce.

Judge explained that if it were not for the Lee County School Board’s decision to sell a four-acre chunk of the 76-acres it owns on the east side of Three Oaks Parkway, the post office may have never happened.

“We came up with an idea for a partnership between the school board and the post office,” Judge explained.

The United States Post Office purchased the property for $430,000, Judge said.
Postmaster Debbie Rardin said the Lodge Construction-built post office is the same size as the existing Estero post office on Broadway.

“It’ll be a few weeks before we open it to the public,” she said. “I’m guessing, it’ll be mid-January. We’ll close the old one one night and open here the next day.

“This is long overdue,” said Rardin, pointing out that parking at the existing post office was severely insufficient.

Rardin did not have a definitive date as to when people can start using the new post office.

“We have a few things to do yet,” she said. “Those with post office box keys have to exchange their existing ones for new ones. Things like that.”

The new post office will not be a distribution center. It will mainly serve as a retail center for people sending and picking up mail and buying postage and other items, Rardin said.

“There will be no carriers based here,” she said. “I think people will really like it. It has three times as many parking spaces as the existing post office — and it’s centrally located. Three Oaks Parkway is central Estero. I’m thrilled.”

State Rep. Connie Mack (R-FL) was also in attendance and said Judge was the one who was instrumental in getting Estero a new post office.

“During my first election, Meg met with me and said, ‘We need a new post office and this is what you’re going to do,’” Mack laughed. “This is something that’s been needed for a long time.”