POPLARVILLE, Miss.—Four years after Poplarville’s main post office closed due to structural damage—and months after federal officials said construction on a new facility would begin—no work has started at the site.
As the holiday season ramps up, residents say postal workers are forced to sort growing volumes of packages on the ground outside a temporary mobile unit, raising concerns about mail security, weather exposure and working conditions.
Photos shared with RHCJC News show packages laid out near the mobile unit, located across from the courthouse, which has served as the town’s post office since the closure of the original facility in early 2022.
City officials previously said construction on a new post office at 935 S. Main St. was confirmed to begin in October. As of December, residents say no visible progress has been made at the site.
RHCJC News contacted U.S. Postal Service officials overseeing the Poplarville project for an explanation of the delay and how mail is being handled without indoor storage. As of publication time, no response had been received.
Residents Describe Worsening Conditions
Carol Williams said community members were hopeful when they learned the new post office would break ground in October, but nothing has happened since the announcement.
“Virtually no work has started down there on the location,” Williams said.
She said postal employees have resorted to sorting and staging packages outside because there is no available indoor space—a situation that has worsened as holiday shipping volumes increase.
“Our postal workers are still having to put the packages outside on the ground to sort them to put them in their vehicles to deliver it,” Williams said. “This has been going on—January will be four years—and so it’s so frustrating for us, but it’s even more frustrating for those postal workers. This is cruel and inhumane working conditions they’re in.”
Williams said the shifting timeline has created frustration and confusion among residents, many of whom have contacted the Postal Service and elected officials with no clear response.
“The date always changes, and there’s a different reason why it’s changing every time,” she said.
She also said the temporary arrangement creates barriers for elderly residents and people with disabilities who previously used indoor post office boxes and now must wait days to collect their mail.
“I had come here to ship a package, and I was leaving and I saw all of those people, and I stopped and took a picture and said I cannot believe this is what they’re having to do,” Williams said. “It’s like, ‘Oh, that’s those people down there in Poplarville—don’t worry about them.”
Closure Was Expected to be Temporary
Former Pearl River County Supervisor Hudson Holliday said the original post office closed due to termite damage and a collapsed ceiling. At the time, local officials believed the closure would be brief.
“We thought it was a temporary deal,” Holliday said. “The (former) post office building had some severe termite damage … the ceiling had fallen in.”
He said early attempts to get the project moving stalled due to confusion over which agency had authority.
“We thought it was a simple thing to fix, and we started trying to … find somebody we could talk to and basically found out you don’t know who’s in charge,” Holliday said.
Local leaders eventually contacted federal representatives, but progress remained elusive.
“You know, you got a U.S. congressman, United States senators—if they can’t fix it, how is the county supervisor going to fix it down in Pearl River County?” Holliday said.
Package Volume Overwhelms Temporary Unit
The rise of online shopping has only made the situation more difficult for local postal employees, Holliday said.
“In the old days, you’d go to the post office and you’d mail a letter … then came along Amazon,” he said. “If you go up there, that post office—about daylight in the morning—you will be appalled. They … look like a bomb has gone off. They’re all out in the parking lot. There’s packages everywhere.”
He said that the postal workers are doing their best in difficult conditions.
“I don’t want it to reflect on the people here working because … they’re doing all they can do,” Holliday said. “They’re in a battle. They’ve dug their foxhole, and they’re doing the best they can do.”
Holliday said residents are right to be frustrated after four years of waiting.
“People got a right to be upset about it,” he said. “This has gone on now for years.”
He said the issue is not political but systemic.
“This is not politics … this is a business decision,” Holliday said. “Somebody is failing in the business management of the post office.”
He warned that without a permanent solution, the problem will worsen alongside the county’s continued growth.
“It’s just going to get worse,” he said. “Pearl River County is growing … and the problem with the post office is just going to get worse until it’s fixed.”
This article first appeared on RHCJC and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.