The Anna Maria Post Office is back in action.
Interim postmaster Kristen Gray told The Islander Oct. 7 that the office’s 101B S. Bay Blvd. location reopened the day before and had been filled with happy staff and customers alike.
The location was one of many U.S. Postal Service facilities that sustained damages from hurricanes Helene and Milton last year, including the Bradenton Beach Post Office at 116 Bridge St. that might not reopen.
In the weeks after the Anna Maria Post Office was closed for repairs, a temporary post office was set up at City Pier Park, 103 N. Bay Blvd., where staff initially worked out of mail trucks. That operation was moved into an air-conditioned office trailer at the park last November and ran until Oct. 4, when the temporary office closed.
The post office reopened the doors of its permanent location Oct. 6.
Gray said the building had been gutted, so she and the rest of staff were “basically building an office from the ground up,” including reoutfitting it with new equipment.
She said that while some organizational work needs to be done, the post office was “fully functional” again and staff was glad to be there.
“We are happy to be back in our office so we can provide a little bit of normalcy for our Anna Maria residents,” Gray said.
She said returning customers were also very happy to see the office get back in action.
Gray acknowledged that working out of the office trailer had been “challenging,” but said staff did not let those challenges impact the operation.
“You can’t be affected by that, so you just do what you gotta do,” she said. “We just get it done no matter what location we’re in.”
The post office’s lobby is open 24/7. Its service desk is open 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Mondays-Fridays and 10 a.m.-noon Saturdays.
P.O. box keys issued before last year’s storms will still work, but those issued for the temporary location should be returned to the service desk.
Gray told The Islander Oct. 9 that she did not yet have a date scheduled for the temporary post office trailer’s removal.
However, Mayor Mark Short said at a city commission meeting the same day that, if its removal took too long, he would contact U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Longboat Key, to help expedite the process.
Short said he hopes to have the trailer removed ahead of Tuesday, Nov. 11, so City Pier Park can be used to host the city’s annual Veterans Day observance.