The new Ben Lomond Station of the Ogden Post Office, 221 N. Washington Blvd., will open for business May 12.
It replaces the old Ben Lomond Station at 506 Washington Blvd., which the Postal Service had leased since Aug. 1, 1962.Postmaster Robert W. Johnson said that Station Manager Robert Hadley and his 50 employees will move the retail operation to the new $1.932 million building Thursday afternoon, and window clerks will be ready to greet customers in the new post office Friday morning.
Letter carriers, however, will begin their routes from the old building Friday morning. While they are delivering mail, their sorting cases and other equipment will be moved, and they will return to the new station.
Mail service will not be disrupted.
The new facility is the first post office in the state, and one of only 59 in the nation so far, designed by a computer system called the "Kit of Parts," said Johnson. He described the Kit of Parts as being much like basic building blocks that architects manipulate on a computer screen until the building is designed to meet the specific requirements of the project.
The computer program reduces architectural and engineering design fees, administrative costs and also increases quality, he said.
"We are extremely cramped in the old building," said Johnson. "It only has 5,500 square feet compared with 22,500 square feet in the new one, and we simply outgrew it a long time ago." He said the number of homes and businesses served by the facility has grown from 11,000 to 15,880 since 1975.
He said the new building has more customer parking. Collection boxes on both Washington Boulevard and Harrisville Road can be reached without getting out of the car, and the station has 1,291 post office boxes, compared to 399 in the old building.
The new Ben Lomond Station has been under construction for about a year and was built by Hogan and Tingey Construction Co.
A public open house is planned in June.