Wreck Closes Post Office Building

Edited on October 15

A traffic incident in Broadus on Saturday triggered a series of events which led to post office business now taking place in the community center, for an estimated one to two weeks.

On Saturday around mid-day, an incident involving Dave Richards and Dorothy King, both of Broadus, resulted in King's car attempting to build a drive-through entrance to the Broadus post office. The front end of the car bashed through the south wall of the post office, creating a substantial mess inside, and cracking the wall up to the roof. No one inside was injured but the building was considered unsafe for work, and on Tuesday morning (the first business day due to the Monday holidays), the post office was opened at the community center.

We spoke with Rhonda Weber at the post office, and as of Tuesday afternoon, mail and packages will be available for pickup at the community center beginning at 11 am, while the facility will have hours of 8-5 pm Monday through Friday, and 12-3 on Saturday.

Edit: As of Friday, October 15th, mail will need to be picked up at the Volborg Post Office, not the community center.

For mailing out of Broadus, only pre-stamped or pre-paid mail is able to be sent. Those looking to mail packages may go online and set up an account with USPS; there one is able to pay and print off a pre-paid label. Another alternative for those looking to mail out packages is to travel to one of the surrounding post offices, such as Boyes or Biddle, or west to Ashland. Money orders and international shipping is not currently available in Broadus.

Rural routes were not affected by the change in venue, and those customers are expected to receive their mail as normally scheduled.

The post office has traditionally been one of the posting locations for the county's public notices. Those notices will temporarily be posted at Henry Malley Memorial Library until service returns to the former location.

Gary Alderman, owner of the building in which the post office is normally housed, told us that work is expected to commence soon on the wall broken in the car wreck, with hopes that construction will be completed in the next week or two, weather dependent.