The first Village Post Office (VPO) in the Connecticut Valley District of the U.S. Postal Service is scheduled to officially open on Wednesday, March 13th, at Weatherheads, located at 63 French King Highway in Erving, MA.

A ribbon cutting is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. and will feature several guest speakers, including Christine Brock, Acting Post Office Operations Manager; Shane Emerson, Erving’s Administrative Postmaster and Tatiana Roy, Manager of Marketing for the Connecticut Valley District, which is comprised of all Post Offices in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, from New Bedford to the Berkshires.

Weatherheads is owned by Ralph Semb and is located directly across the street from the Erving Post Office. This entertainment center encompasses a Bowling Alley, Dunkin Donuts, and a Convenience Store.  The store, where the owner plans to put the Village Post Office, is open from 5am – 10 p.m. on Monday through Saturday.

VPOs can be located in convenience stores, local businesses, libraries, etc., and are managed by the proprietors. They provide timesaving convenience and, in most cases, longer hours than regular Post Offices. VPOs offer the products and services that customers use most often — such as books of Forever stamps and free Priority Mail and Express Mail packaging products.

The Erving Post Office was evaluated under the Post Plan as a four hour a day post office, so the VPO will be a great addition to the community.  They are open on Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. and on Saturday, from 8:30 a.m. until 11 a.m..

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A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation: 152 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With more than 31,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $65 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world's mail. If it were a private-sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 42nd in the 2012 Fortune 500. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency for seven years and the fourth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.