If you live in the state capital of Vermont, you still cannot buy stamps or send a package with the U.S. Postal Service.

Despite the authority’s promises that the Montpelier post office would be fully operational “before the summer months,” and despite the lease for a large retail space that went into effect more than four months ago, the temporary office that finally opened in late July is a large, unoccupied and nearly empty room with a row of mailboxes along the opposite wall.

Thirteen months after flooding devastated the city’s government building at 87 State Street, postal customers in Montpelier still have to travel to surrounding towns to access USPS retail services.

“It’s incredibly disappointing. Frankly, it’s pathetic,” said Ben Doyle, chairman of the Montpelier Commission for Recovery and Resilience.

The commission is an independent body created shortly after the July 2023 floods to lead urban renewal projects. One of its main goals was to restore a functioning post office to Montpelier. According to Doyle, it was a long, painful saga that continues to this day.

Until November 17, postal workers worked in mail trucks last year. Since then, Vermont’s congressional delegation has repeatedly called for and even advocated for the return of a post office to the state capital. In January of this year, some Montpelier residents were left without mail, and the situation got even worse, with no physical locations to pick up medications or bills.

The only constant throughout the entire period, according to Doyle, was the almost complete absence of communication from the postal service.

“They have not responded at all. These people have a responsibility to the taxpayer,” Doyle said.

In the spring, the Postal Service delivered a rare piece of good news. In a March 29 email to Doyle’s commission, USPS spokesman Stephen Doherty said he was pleased to announce that the agency had signed a lease for space at 89 Main Street, where it will open a new post office “providing full retail and mailbox services.”

The postal service’s move into the facility would begin on April 1, according to Doherty’s email, and the agency would begin installing a “sales counter, safes, security equipment and IT infrastructure” as well as mailboxes. The goal is to have a grand opening before the summer, Doherty added, but he would update the commission “once we are far enough along to predict a completion date.”

None of that happened, says Doyle. Instead, he said, “the door was just open one day” without the Montpelier Commission knowing about it.

“It’s a bunch of boxes. It’s not the full postal service that they promised us and that we are entitled to,” Doyle said.

When a reporter from VTDigger stopped by in early August, a radio in one corner of the room blared Beatles songs across the vast, empty floor space. A few customers shuffled in to collect mail from the mailbox wall at the far end. On the door, a printed notice urged customers to pick up large packages or excess mail at the Berlin Mall.

“We are still unable to provide retail services. We will let you know when this is implemented,” the announcement said. “Until then, you can conduct retail transactions at all surrounding branches.”

Given this situation, Doyle wonders what the Postal Service has been doing for the past four months.

“They have been paying the rent since April and the building is practically empty,” he said.

By email, Doherty only confirmed that the post office had “moved its PO box customers who picked up their mail in Barre to the new location at 89 Main Street.”

He continued, “We are still working on the necessary expansion to open the counter at this location and resume full-service operations in downtown Montpelier.”

Doherty said he had no “concrete timeline” for when the work would be completed, nor did he provide an explanation for why the delivery of retail services had been delayed so far beyond the agency’s original forecast.

“There has been no citizen engagement at all. They have to provide information,” Doyle said, referring to a federal law that requires the permanent closure of a post office to undergo a community process that includes 60 days’ notice of the planned action so neighbors can comment.

Meanwhile, more than a year after its destruction by flooding, the federal building at 87 State Street remains in a dilapidated state, and a date for its reopening has yet to be set.

The General Services Administration, which owns the building, said it was continuing to “identify additional problems and determine the scope of repairs needed,” according to Paul Hughes, a spokesman for the federal agency. Some of those repairs included catch basins, civil engineering work and heating and ventilation work, he said. Flooding in early July and heavy rains this summer have not caused additional damage, he added.

“The building’s sewage pumps continue to pump water from the sumps even after these weather events,” Hughes said.