Flooding plagues LaHarpe post office

LAHARPE — Steve Holloway notes the irony of the LaHarpe post office’s location at the intersection of Main and Eighth streets.
“You can tell it’s at the highest point in town,” he said.
Indeed, the post office is situated near the crest at a slight incline, with Main Street sloping downward both to the north and south.
Certainly, such a lofty elevation would make the post office impervious to flooding, right?
“You’d think so,” Holloway chuckled. “But it doesn’t work out that way.”
Thursday morning’s torrential rains once again flooded the post office’s parking lot — and in so doing, sent water into the building via the side entrance.
Holloway, who owns the building and rents it to the U.S. Postal Service, has battled water wars at the site for years. Just recently, he had to replace about two feet of drywall throughout the interior to remove mold-infested portions.
“That’s from the water,” he said.
Holloway cites poor stormwater drainage along Main Street. The gutter has a 6-inch channel, but a whistle farther to the south is insufficient to handle the water runoff, Holloway contends.
“The whistle is too high in the ditch,” Holloway said. “It basically just dams up the water.”
Allen County crews cleared out the channel earlier this month, an effort insufficient to prevent Thursday morning’s 4-inch rain from flooding the building.
While the water drainage has been a headache, a letter from the U.S. Postal Service’s maintenance division gives the situation an added sense of urgency.
The letter mandates Holloway fix the drainage issue by mid-September, or they’ll send an independent contractor to look at the problem.
Holloway’s larger concern is what happens if that doesn’t fix the issue.
“I’m afraid they’ll just close the post office altogether, and have rural carriers do all of LaHarpe’s mail,” Holloway said. “The mail here comes from Moran, anyway.”
Holloway owns nine post office buildings in the area.
“I’m just scared what will happen if this post office closes,” Holloway said. “It’s where a lot of small towns like LaHarpe get their identity.”
Because Main Street is officially a county road, and not controlled by the city, Holloway said he would reach out to the county once again to see if the ditch can be widened and the downhill whistle either replaced or relocated.