Cross County offers space for Postal CPU

Cross County offers space for Postal CPU
by Vito Signorile

The Van Nest community’s post office may have closed over the summer, but Cross County Federal Savings Bank has stepped up to provide some postal services for Van Nest residents who prefer the more traditional methods of purchasing stamps and money orders.

The Van Nest postal station officially closed in July, and since then many in the community that has a large elderly population have been unable to easily conduct basic postal functions like purchasing money orders or stamps, said Morris Park Merchants Alliance president Robert Ruggiero.

Ruggiero has joined with Cross County president Anthony Milone, Congressman Joseph Crowley, and Senator Jeff Klein in calling on the United States Postal Service to establish a Contract Postal Unit inside of the bank, located at 791 Morris Park Avenue.

Cross County Federal Savings Bank has agreed to accept the CPU, Milone said, and it could sell stamps, provide overnight shipping envelopes, and weigh packages to calculate postage.

“I believe that this is going to be the future, because you can see the type of deficit that the postal service is running,” Milone said. “You can purchase stamps online, but many people want to do that by hand.”

The CPU would be staffed by an employee of Cross County, Milone said. There might be drop slots for local and non-local mail in the vestibule of the bank near the ATM, and this should keep people coming into the bank to learn about other kinds of products and services that Cross County can offer, Milone stated.

Crowley and Klein wrote a joint letter to the United States Postal Service postmaster general Patrick Donahoe about expediting the establishment of a CPU inside the bank, stating that since the bank has agreed to house the CPU and the Van Nest community lost its post office, it should happen as soon as possible.

“Since the closure of the Van Nest Post Office in July, Congressman Crowley and I have been working together to find a suitable alternative for Van Nest residents,” Klein said. “Once again, Cross County Federal Savings Bank has stepped forward to help the community. This again, underscores why I fought so hard to bring this financial institution into the neighborhood as it would truly be an anchor for the future economic development of this region.”

Many older residents prefer to conduct post office business as before.Many are Italian immigrants, and they should be familiar with this type of arrangement, because often in Italy banks are found in post offices, Ruggiero said.

“It is the perfect marriage, because the post office and the bank have basically the same hours, and it is even better because the bank is open on Saturday, while the post office was never open on Saturday,” Ruggiero said. “We are not a tech-savvy community. There are a lot of old timers who like to take a walk and buy that book of stamps.”

Having a CPU in a bank also makes sense because while CPUs cannot sell money orders like a traditonal post office, banks can, Ruggiero said. The Postal Service also has the added advantage of having a bonded person running the USPS CPU, which adds credibility to their operations, Ruggiero stated.

“We are very anxious to get the CPU going,” Milone said.

“I think that this a win-win for the bank and community.”

Patrick Rocchio can be reach via e-mail at procchio@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 742-3393