New Ono Post Office contract executed, but construction hasn’t commenced

Going on four years since the Ono Post Office abruptly closed, residents still don’t have in-town mail delivery.

And about a year after the United States Postal Service provided to LebTown a tentative opening date in the summer of 2025 for the new office at 47 Main St., there are no visible signs that the building will open for business any time soon.

The building’s interior is vacant and a driveway to the rear, where the entrance and parking spaces will be located, remains unpaved. 

The only response to numerous questions sent by LebTown via email to USPS spokesman Mark A. Wahl was a one-sentence statement: “We have a signed lease that will be the site of the new MPO once construction (is) completed. No other details available currently.”

Requests for comment to questions submitted via email to Congressman Dan Meuser (R-9) about the project were not answered as of publication. LebTown reported in January 2024 that Meuser’s office was working with the USPS on reopening a post office in town.

Building owner Matt Witmer told LebTown he signed a 10-year lease agreement with USPS last November to rent a portion of the first floor in the two-story, multi-unit building.

“I think if they would have started in November, they were expecting in the spring, which would be now, to be open,” Witmer said. “Because they’re not really using that much of the building. It’s more of the first floor on the west side there. They’re not using the upstairs, and they’re just doing renovations.”

Witmer said the contract calls for eight parking spots to the rear of the property near the main entrance and also renovations to make the building compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.  

“And now they’re gonna do the parking and stuff, too, because that was part of the contract. So they’re not doing that much. It’s not like they’re renovating the whole building,” he added.

Some initial leg work did occur, Witmer said, but nothing additional has happened since then. He said the building was inspected for the presence of lead paint, asbestos and other potential environmental hazards.  

“Some of it was due diligence. I mean, it was all stuff that needed to be done, I guess by their policies, but there’s been nothing that ever actually materialized from it after that,” Witmer said. 

Ono has been without a post office since it abruptly closed on Oct. 27, 2022, days before the lease for the old post office was set to expire.

Jocelyn Shay, who owned the building at the prior location on the west side of town, had decided to relocate her real estate company to that site and had written to postal officials that she was ending their rental agreement. 

She previously told LebTown she gave the USPS a year’s notice of her decision and what she believed was plenty of time for them to find a new location before the lease was set to expire on Oct. 31, 2022. However, post officials requested an extension of their lease with her, which she denied. 

A letter sent to residents from the USPS in October 2022 concerning the closing stated that “no final decision to permanently discontinue the Post Office has been made” and continues by noting that “a community meeting will be held later near the Ono Post Office to explain our plans and solicit your comments concerning possible alternate means of providing postal and other services.”

Five months after the letter was received, LebTown reported that residents had not been notified of an upcoming community meeting to gather comments nor if the postal service had reached an official decision concerning future operations in Ono.

That promised public meeting between USPS officials and town residents, according to Ed Anspach, owner of Anspach Auto at 51 Main St., has never happened. 

Around that same time, some Ono residents said they were erroneously being charged for post office boxes in Jonestown. Several months later, following a LebTown investigation, the post office refunded those payments to residents. 

Meanwhile, USPS officials were reportedly still scouting new locations, and the Ono Fire Company’s social hall was considered. In January 2024, Meuser sent an email to LebTown that stated: 

“The USPS is conducting a design and construction review and awaiting additional information from the landlords of the properties that have been identified. It is expected that this review will be completed within the next 60-90 days. Once the review has concluded, site selection visits will be scheduled to determine the most viable option for operations. My office will continue to monitor the situation, and we will be in weekly contact with the USPS until this project is finished.”

Renovation of the building would breathe new life into a structure that Witmer says was constructed in the 1800s. 

Witmer noted that research showed the building operated from 1850 to 1910 as the Mount Nebo Hotel. 

“So then after that, it was decommissioned. And then they had a public sale of the contents. They had a liquor license that was lapsed and all that kind of stuff,” Witmer said, noting the Shuey family purchased it circa the late 1920s and converted the building into apartments. “There’s a signature that the Shueys put on the inside wall on the eastern side of the building, but I can’t remember if they put a date with it.”

Witmer told LebTown there are tentative plans for a new business in the other half of the building at 49 Main St., but those are on hold until the post office provides final construction blueprints to him.

“Seems like it’s getting pushed back. Eventually something will happen there. It’s just a matter of wanting to see what they’re doing because like I said, I didn’t see the rest of the drawings to see the final, final plans, ’cause they did change some things as far as parking,” he said. “They wanna park the cars right up against the back of the building where it was the other way originally, and I might lose an entrance way over there. So I need to see those plans until I can continue with what I wanna do. I mean, I could do some stuff, but it’s no sense to keep working on it if I don’t know what’s going on.”  

Anspach said having a post office and a new business next door would be beneficial to Ono residents. However, 3.5 years of no postal service still requires residents to drive 3.5 miles to Jonestown to get their mail. Residents say the ongoing saga also delays new business growth in the town in East Hanover Township.

“You can’t believe anything they tell you. They were gonna have a meeting, they never did that. They were gonna open a post office, and they aren’t doing that,” said Anspach, in sharing his frustration with the federal government’s inaction.