Journal & Topics Media Group

Rolling Meadows Post Office Petition 940-Strong


For the past six years, Rolling Meadows residents have gone without their own post office. Now, over 900 residents and counting say they want it back.
As of Tuesday (June 19), 940 people signed a petition asking the postmaster general to reopen a post office in the city. David Whitney, a Rolling Meadows resident, plan commissioner, and petition organizer, said he’s hoping for at least 1,000 signatures.
“It is my understanding that Rolling Meadows (population approximately 25,000) is the only city between 15,000 and 25,000 residents in the area that does not have a post office,” the petition reads.
In the six weeks since the petition began circulating, U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-8th) and U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam (R-6th) have gotten behind the project. They are currently drafting a letter to send to the postmaster general in support of the idea, said Whitney.
Rolling Meadows Mayor Len Prejna also plans to reach out to U.S. Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin on the project.
Formerly located at 3266 Kirchoff Rd. in the Jewel-Osco shopping center, the post office was forced out due to increased rent after a longtime lease, said Whitney and Rolling Meadows Chamber of Commerce Director Linda Liles Ballantine.
Since it closed, residents have had to go to the Arlington Heights Post Office on Euclid Avenue, located a little over two miles away from downtown Rolling Meadows. Though it is only about a four-minute drive from the previous location, overcrowding at the Arlington Heights facility can lead to 45-minute wait times to mail a package, Ballantine told the Journal & Topics. The next closest post office, around three miles away in Palatine, is also very crowded, she added.
“I saw a lot of individual parents who were running a home business struggling,” Ballantine said. Many at-home business owners have to deliver packages daily.
Additionally, Ballantine said the lack of a post office, along with no train station in the downtown area, has made Rolling Meadows’ downtown difficult to market. Following the shuttering of Dominick’s grocery store on Kirchoff nearly 14 years ago, finding new tenants for downtown was already a struggle.
Whitney said new owners of the Jewel-Osco center have lowered rent prices to attract new businesses, and a post office could open in its old location if plans are successful.

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