By Jason Blevins | Colorado Sun
For three years, the town of Crested Butte has labored to find a new place for its overwhelmed U.S. post office. The town bought a parcel and began negotiating with builders, offering plans that involved the town either leasing the land to the Postal Service so it could build its own facility, the town building a new $12 million post office and leasing that to the service or even selling the land outright to the Postal Service.
“We drafted a cost-sharing agreement with the Postal Service and they told us a year ago, ‘We can’t do this,’ and then we have heard nothing from them since. Every plan we offer, we do not hear anything back. They are silent and nonresponsive,” said Dara MacDonald, the town manager of Crested Butte. “So we are stuck. We can’t really plan anything.”
The long-term lease for Crested Butte’s 3,300-square-foot post office on Elk Avenue expires in February 2026 and it’s unclear what will happen when the facility closes. It’s too late to build a new post office and have it ready in less than a year. It’s hard to fathom the estimated 4,000 residents in the north end of the Gunnison Valley traveling 30 to 40 miles to Gunnison for their mail.
“The Gunnison facility cannot handle this. They do not have the space or staff to add this volume,” MacDonald said.
Last month, Colorado’s U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper joined U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd in sending a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy pleading for the Postal Service to make a decision and speak with the communities of Crested Butte and Mount Crested Butte.