Cabot, News

Post Office Reopens

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CABOT – The Cabot Post Office reopened Saturday, January 18 at 8 a.m. for retail service according to postal clerk Dennis Towle. Towle has replaced Diane Jeger, who left the postal service soon after the Cabot office closed and was relocated to Marshfield.
“Effective Saturday, Jan. 18, the Cabot Post Office will be open for retail and P.O. Box services at 3123 Main Street,” said a January 15 letter to P.O. Box and delivery customers in ZIP Code 05647 from United States Postal Service Operations Integration Manager Wendy Goddard with no return address.

The letter noted “The office was suspended due to safety concerns.” Tuesday, Jan. 21, Towle said safety issues with asbestos have been corrected.

The Cabot Post Office reopened Saturday, January 18 at 8 a.m. for retail service. It was closed March 5 after vermiculite was discovered in the ceiling that likely contained asbestos. All of Cabot’s operations were relocated to the Marshfield Post Office.
photo by Vanessa Fournier

The operation was moved from the Marshfield Post Office Friday evening and he’s still getting everything put back in place, said Towle. He’s concentrating on getting mail delivered and it will take a few weeks to unpack boxes and get retail stamp displays and other things put back together, he said.

The Cabot Post Office was closed for over 10 months.

Since March 5, 2024, customers of the Cabot Post Office had to travel to the Marshfield Post Office to receive box mail, and to the Marshfield or Plainfield Post Offices to transact business at a retail counter.

The Cabot post office was closed after a heating contractor noticed vermiculite filtering down from the ceiling.

Most vermiculite produced before 1990 comes from a single mine in Libby, Mont., which also had a deposit of asbestos that contaminated the vermiculite, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

ATSDR literature warns, “if the [vermiculite] insulation is disturbed, asbestos fibers may be released into the air. Inhalation of these fibers would be a concern. If this is the case, you may want to consider either containing or removing the insulation.”

Cabot Select Board member R.D. Eno reported on social media in April 2024 that, as far as he knew, no one had reported any health issues as a result of working at the Cabot Post Office.

“Alerted to the serious economic consequences of the loss of this vital service, Postal Realty Trust has communicated regularly with the select board, while Rep. Becca Balint’s office has reached out repeatedly to the USPS,” Eno’s post stated. “. . . the remediation process has been expedited. Mitigation work should take about a week,” and is scheduled to begin on April 29, said Eno. “Postal Realty Trust is already lining up a contractor to re-insulate the building and install a new ceiling.

“Once reconstruction is complete, it will be up to the USPS to decide when to occupy the building, but a USPS official in Portland, Maine, has assured the select board that the post office will be reopened.” That happened this past Saturday.

The office will now be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week for lobby and P.O. Box access.

Retail window service will be available Monday to Friday from 7 to 11 a.m. and noon to 2 p.m. and Saturday from 8 to 11 a.m.

Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.

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