The property manager whose efforts to keep a 100-year-old post office branch open are bearing little fruit asked the Dougherty County Commission on Monday for help in reaching out to U.S. Postal Service officials.

Frances Krack, a representative of Loanstar Equities, which manages the historic downtown Albany post office building at 345 W. Broad Ave., told commissioners the USPS contract for utilization of the facility will end Sept. 30. Two extensions staved off planned closure in December 2012 and June.

"We have located an entrepreneur who wants to operate that property as a village post office, which would allow for other retail uses so that they wouldn't have to rely just on postal services for income," Krack said. "(The USPS) even solicited a private entrepreneur that could keep the facility open when we first talked to them, but now we're at a point where they don't even respond to our letters.

"They've gone so far as to send workers in to take measurements, and I think they're preparing to remove the post office boxes from the walls. I have a great love for that building; I'm about ready to attach myself to the boxes to keep them from tearing them out. They tell us we're not in a rural area, so we don't meet the criteria (required of the village post office concept). We're asking them to make an exception, and I'm asking y'all for any support you can give."

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