STATESVILLE, NC —The Contract Post Office on Front Street in Statesville, in a “temporary” status since opening in December, is now permanent and will remain open under the current owner, Gene Houpe.

Downtown Post Office & More, 205 W. Front Street, will be open six days a week – Monday – Friday, 8 am – 5 pm and Saturdays 8 am – 1 pm. It is one of 12 CPUs in the Statesville/Foothills Area, all serving as convenient alternatives to traditional Post Offices, with a large number of vacant Post Office boxes ready to rent.

“The contract postal unit will help to increase convenience and access to postal services for customers unable to travel to the Statesville Post Office,” said Edward Mauren, Officer-in-Charge, Statesville Post Office, who oversees the CPUs in Statesville. “A full line of postal products and services are available at the new CPU including postage stamps, Express Mail® service, Priority Mail® service, special services, packaging products, and much more. We are very excited for the residents of Statesville to remain open.” The Postal Service has re-engineered the entire Contract Unit Postal program to better answer the needs of postal customers nationwide. “The Postal Service is continuously tasked with finding smarter and more efficient ways to reach our customers,” said Mauren. “Our CPUs, our online services at www.usps.com, and our major retail outlets (Harris Teeter, Food Lion, CVS, etc.) offering face-value stamps throughout the city and state are allowing us to change the way we do business, to make us available to more people 24 hours a day.”

A list of other CPUs throughout the Statesville-Hickory and surrounding areas is listed below.

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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. With 36,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, the Postal Service relies on the sale of postage, products and services to pay for operating expenses. Named the Most Trusted Government Agency five consecutive years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $68 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 26th in the 2008 Fortune 500.