In Sound Beach, frustration grows over abandoned post office

Another summer of discontent has begun in the North Shore Brookhaven hamlet of Sound Beach, where the post office has not functioned since May 26, 2023.

The U.S. Postal Service vacated its rented outpost last year because of structural problems with the building, a USPS spokesman said at the time. It has not moved back, and in February, the building owner sued the United States of America in federal claims court for nonpayment of rent.

According to the suit, the United States — referred to as “Defendant” throughout — stopped paying its $8,778 monthly rent in October and owes $40,775.23 plus interest and ongoing rent. The defendant has not filed a response.

The lawsuit appears to have ended any hope for a speedy return to normalcy in Sound Beach, residents and elected officials said. Reactions ranged from strong annoyance from residents envisioning another year of schlepping about two miles to the Miller Place post office, to something akin to existential dismay from those who said Sound Beach’s squat brick post office had been a civic hub.

“It’s such a small community — all it has is its post office and a fire department,” said Bea Ruberto, a retired textbook editor who has lived in the area 45 years and is president of the Sound Beach Civic Association. “This was the meeting place.”

'Place where you caught up'

Jane Bonner, the Brookhaven Town councilwoman who represents the area, likened the post office to Floyd’s barbershop on the 1960s sitcom "The Andy Griffith Show." “It was a place where you caught up, said hello, met friends," she said. "Now, they don’t see their neighbors like they used to.”

Sound Beach, with 7,298 residents, sits on the border between two school districts, Rocky Point and Miller Place. It has no downtown and few landmarks. 

A spokesman for USPS, Xavier Hernandez, did not agree to an interview and did not answer emailed questions. “It is unclear when this leased facility will be reopened, as we await repairs by the landlord,” he wrote in an email. “Regular delivery service to residents continues uninterrupted.” He declined to comment on the post office lease or on the lawsuit.

Sixteen Broadway, USPS’ Brooklyn-based landlord, did not comment, and its lawyer did not respond to a request for comment. Sixteen Broadway bought the 3,360-square foot post office building in 2014 for $950,000, according to USPS and property records. Residents said the post office had operated out of the building since the 1980s.   

The company’s lawsuit — a 12-page complaint followed by 78 pages of exhibits including load-bearing equations — asserts that the government should pay its rent, because a government engineer who examined the building last June and again in September did not find the building was unsafe.

That engineer’s September report, included in the exhibits, did say load-bearing walls had bowed out by more than an inch and that “structural integrity” would need to be confirmed, or repairs would have to be made. It also described other deficiencies like rusty loading dock poles.

In May, Brookhaven Town inspectors cited Sixteen Broadway for multiple violations of property maintenance code, including the section concerning pest infestation. Bonner said the town has gotten no response from the company.

Community frustration mounts

In interviews, more than half a dozen residents expressed frustration.

In the first place: It’s “mind-boggling that the United States government doesn’t own the building,” said Beth Dimino, a science teacher. (In fact, USPS operates 25,300 leased facilities throughout the country, including dozens on Long Island).

Regarding Sixteen Broadway’s upkeep, said Hope Hillyer, a semiretired consultant: “I see neglect, I see someone who didn’t care. The grass isn’t cut. … Can you imagine your police station being closed for a year, your firehouse? These are things that get under my skin.”

Several residents said they used to look forward to a few minutes’ walk to their post office. Nobody said they looked forward to the 15-minute drive to the Miller Place post office. “A pain in the neck,” Hillyer said. 

Arlynne Schatzkamer-Bleier said she missed talking with USPS workers who staffed the Sound Beach post office. “They knew if someone was sick, they knew to express concern if they had not seen someone for a couple days. They knew when babies were born, they knew when there were marriages,” she said.

Several residents described the USPS bureaucracy as opaque and unhelpful.

In a statement emailed by a representative, their congressman, Rep. Nick LaLota (R-Amityville), said that had been his experience, too.

“For nearly a year, we have been pushing USPS to remedy the disastrous situation at Sound Beach,” LaLota wrote. “To say USPS has been uncooperative is putting it lightly as their responses are completely unacceptable and a failure of the government.”

Last fall, LaLota asked USPS to provide a mobile retail unit for temporary use outside the Sound Beach post office. USPS declined, with a government relations representative, James Cari, explaining in a Nov. 3 letter to LaLota that "use of a mobile retail unit is reserved for extraordinary situations where distance to the nearest facility would pose an extreme hardship on customers."

In December, LaLota, unimpressed, introduced a bill to "require the Postal Service to use a mobile retail unit to provide retail postal services to an area when the post office for such area is temporarily unable to provide such services." It awaits a vote.