Gainesville will soon see a post office close and ZIP code retire.
The downtown post office at 401 SE 1st Ave. will close forever Friday.
The post office will close because of purely financial reasons, said Bill Logeson, postmaster of Gainesville.
"The rent was more than we can handle," he said.
The Main Street post office, 1401 North Main St., took over 23 of the post office's city mail routes and two of its rural mail routes from the downtown post office June 1, he said.
Post office box holders were notified 30 days ago that they should either transfer their box rent to another post office or close their box.
The post office would refund them the unused rent, he said.
The Main Street post office has been serving the 32601 and 32604 ZIP codes since June 1.
The 32602 ZIP code has been retired, which is the ZIP code for all the downtown P.O. boxes.
"If you haven't made a decision, time is running out," he said.
The post office is one of the 3,700 post offices to be closed nationally by the United States Postal Service.
There are 33 other post offices that will face the chopping block in Florida.
The Wood and Swink Store and Post Office in Evinston, Fla., was slated to meet the same fate as the downtown post office until an outpour of support from its surrounding community saved the functional landmark.
Wood and Swink is a local meeting place for the town and has been around since 1882.
The USPS will be holding a public meeting in Evinston to discuss its proposal to make possible changes in the way postal services are provided, according to a press release from the USPS. The meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. in the Evinston Church.
