Ninth District Congressman Andrew Clyde announced in a press release Wednesday that the United States Postal Service has reversed its previous decision to relocate from its current facility on Green Street in Gainesville.
Clyde said he opposed the reversal. USPS will now continue to operate from its Green Street location, and will no longer seek to relocate. A request for comment from USPS was not immediately returned.
“For decades, Gainesville residents and local leaders have advocated for relocating the Green Street Post Office — a move the USPS supported back in 2018,” said Clyde. “Yet after years of inaction on this matter, the USPS unilaterally decided to reverse course and retain the location. This severely misguided determination completely disregards our community’s position, plans, and thoughtful proposals. I urge the USPS to prioritize Northeast Georgians’ needs over unelected bureaucrats’ demands by returning to its previous decision to relocate the Green Street Post Office.”
The possibility of relocating the facility has been in discussion for many years, with the most recent official plans to move the facility being discussed in 2018.
Gainesville Mayor Sam Couvillon said he was disappointed by the decision.
"As the local community, we should have some say, some input in the matter, in which we've had little to no say here in the last few years," Couvillon said. "At one point we did have a representative from the postal service come to a council meeting and announced that it was going to be relocated."
Couvillon said the Gainesville City Council was informed of the decision by Andrew Clyde's office.
"We did not learn anything from the United States Postal Service," Couvillon said. "What we were told is that they had effectively just taken it off the market, it was no longer for sale."
Couvillon said he believed the City Council would discuss the matter in the coming weeks.
"It's an issue that is something I think is important to our community," Couvillon said. "We have a large building right there where the post office sits that is highly underutilized... I feel like we're just back to square one. There's going to be a lot of thought given to this and how we proceed going forward."
The facility has been in operation since 1967.
