Temporary Move for South Otselic Post Office

Fire Damage to Facility Results in Move to North Pitcher

SOUTH OTSELIC — It was a local fire department, not the Easter Bunny, who paid an early visit to the South Otselic Post Office on Sunday.

On Sunday, the South Otselic Volunteer Fire Department responded to a 9 am call, reporting an electrical fire that forced one family to evacuate from the property at 1605 State Highway 26.

The facility also houses a tae kwon do studio, a vacant apartment and the South Otselic Post Office. There were no injuries or damage to mail secured inside the Post Office.

Repairs to the post office are expected to take several weeks. More than 170 post office boxholders have been directed to the North Pitcher Post Office, located at 1027 State Highway 26, for their mail.

South Otselic postal customers served on the community's delivery route will see no change to service. However, signature-required or oversized items will require a pickup at the North Pitcher Post Office.

Hours at North Pitcher are 8 am to noon, and 2:30 pm until 4:45 pm. That post office is open from 8:30 am until 11:45 am on Saturdays.

Postal officials from the Postal Service's Albany District are exploring the use of a temporary trailer in South Otselic for mail service. According to the Postal Service web site, usps.com, the North Pitcher Post Office is 2.7 miles away from South Otselic.

The Postal Service's Albany District reaches more than 3.5 million postal customers served by 720 Post Offices in an area that stretches from the Massachusetts and Canadian borders west to Waterloo and south to Binghamton and the Southern Tier. This includes the South Otselic Post Office, which is located in Chenango County.