TAMPA FL – The U.S. Postal Service will close the Clearwater Beach Station, located at 45 Causeway Boulevard in Clearwater Beach, on January 20, 2012. The station will close due to an emergency suspension because of a lease expiration. The lease agreement expires on January 31, 2012, and will not be renewed.

All retail and PO Box services will be moved to the Postal Service’s Clearwater Cleveland Station, 650 Cleveland Street in Clearwater, effective January 23, 2012. Customers with PO Boxes will keep the same PO Box addresses they had at the Clearwater Beach Station. PO Box fees will remain the same.

Hours of operation at the Cleveland Station are Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. Lobby hours are Monday through Friday from 6:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. and Saturdays from 6:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.

Mail delivery to customers’ residences and businesses will not change. Customers with notices to pick up mail or packages will pick up their mail at the Cleveland Station location beginning January 23, 2012.

First-Class Mail has dropped 27 percent and the Postal Service lost nearly $6 Billion in FY2010. The Postal Service is reviewing Post Offices for possible consolidations and closings to reduce the size of its national retail network. The Clearwater Beach Station was under review for possible closure, as part of the Postal Service’s retail optimization initiative. The lease expiration resulted in an emergency suspension and the need to close the facility.

Customers in Clearwater Beach may purchase stamps, mail packages and conduct other Postal Service business at the Beach Print Shack Contract Postal Unit (CPU), 241 Windward Passage, Suite A in Clearwater Beach, without crossing the causeway. The CPU sells stamps and services at the same prices available at the Post Office. The CPU is open Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. and Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. until Noon.

Customers can also mail packages, purchase stamps and conduct other Postal business online at www.usps.com. Stamps are also available at many local retail stores.

Clearwater Beach Station PO Box customers will receive notifications of the closing and a notice will be posted in the lobby.

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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, 150 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 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $67 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 29th in the 2010 Fortune 500. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency six consecutive years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.