Oct 23 – A new Village Post Office (VPO) located at the West Hartford Village Store, 5187 Rt. 14 N, West Hartford, VT, will celebrate its official grand opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony this Wednesday at 10:30 a.m.
U.S. Postal Service Northern New England District Manager Deborah C. Essler will deliver short remarks and cut the ribbon together with store owner John Farrow. The West Hartford VPO is the first in the Northern New England District, which comprises New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine and is one of 58 VPOs now open nationwide.
According to owner Farrow, the store has been in business since 1856, or more than 156 years. For a time during the 19th century, the building housed the town post office.
“I guess you could say it’s like the song goes – everything old is new again,” Farrow says, explaining that he decided to set up a VPO as an outreach to the community. “I thought it would be convenient for our customers to be able to pick up mail, buy their stamps and pick up postal products here.”
The West Hartford Village Store is open Monday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and on Sunday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Farrow says that since the store is open 7 days-a-week, which is later than surrounding towns’ post offices, it is a plus for those who want to buy stamps, get packaging or pick up their Post Office Box mail outside normal postal hours.
District Manager Essler agrees, adding “The Village Post Office is an example of how the Postal Service is changing to better meet America’s needs.”
The new postal center’s official grand opening follows its “soft” opening late last month. Like all VPOs, which are operated by local businesses contracting with the Postal Service, the West Hartford Village Store offers popular postal products and services including Post Office Box service, stamps and flat-rate packaging.
Village Post Offices are part of the Postal Service’s “Approved Postal Provider” network — retail outlets for postal products and services that include Contract Postal Units, Approved Shippers, Stamps on Consignment locations and Community Post Offices. Approved Postal Providers are operated by third parties and complement the Postal Service’s own network by offering customers expanded retail access to postal products and services at convenient hours and locations.