The Yuma Post Office is back open for business.
The front doors were reopened to the public last Friday, nearly 10 months after being closed in early June due to severe damage to the building sustained in the May 20, 2024 hail storm.
“We still have a long ways to go to get everything organized again, but everyone is more than happy to be back in there,” Post Master Terrance Houston said.
A mobil unit has been parked in the back lot since July, with one USPS employee each day staying in the cramped quarters to serve the public’s mailing needs — in the heat and the cold, and everything in between. The mobil unit had heating and cooling, but it did not always work properly, Houston said.
The Post Office boxes finally are back in their indoor home, after outdoor units along the south wall have been used since July.
Mail carriers have had to drive back and forth to Wray each day to get the mail for their routes, come back to do their in-town and rural routes, then return to Wray for the end of the day.
“That drive to Wray everyday was tough,” Houston said.
The Wray Post Office has been very accommodating throughout the ordeal, and Yuma mail customers also utilized Eckley, Otis and Akron post offices at times.
“We appreciate them,” Houston said of the Wray crew. “We appreciate them, their patience with us. We’ll miss them, we had a good time.”
When closed in June, it was announced it would take three months to a full year before the Yuma facility would reopen. Even with that warning, frustrations began to mount earlier this year as the situation dragged on.
Yuma resident Bethleen McCall coordinated a local mail and email campaign to USPS leaders, as well as Representative Lauren Boebert and Senator John Hickenlooper and Senator Mike Bennet. Boebert and Hickenlooper representatives did visit and made efforts to help spur on the reopening.
Houston said mail customers also have expressed their happiness in being back indoors, and are happy for the carriers working out of Yuma again, and no one having to work out of that cramped mobil unit again.