ROD THOMPSON / RTHOMPSON@STARBULLETIN.COM Alton Uyetake, officer in charge of the Pahoa Post Office, checked packages stored under a canopy yesterday while letter carrier Lareida Buckley brought more parcels.

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Mail overflow forces
Big Isle post office
to use canopy

The Pahoa Post Office in the Big Island's Puna District is so overcrowded with Christmas parcels that it is storing the overflow under a canopy in its parking lot.

This is the third year that the 10-by-20-foot canopy has been raised at Christmas, said U.S. Postal Service Officer-in-charge Alton Uyetake. "We just don't have space," he said.

The canopy went up Dec. 5, he said. Every morning, it fills up with parcels to be delivered, and every afternoon, it empties as carriers make deliveries. The cycle starts again the next day.

One person not willing to accept this with a shrug is Puna resident Bill Eger, who wrote a letter to U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, Congressman Ed Case and County Councilman Gary Safarik, calling the conditions "appalling."

Safarik was concerned about security. "I would hope no children would fail to get a package from their grandma because it was stolen," he said. "I guess (the post office) would have done something better if they could have," he said.

Uyetake said someone is always stationed at the back door to keep an eye on the packages.

Construction of a new post office for Pahoa is a high priority for the Postal Service, with design work scheduled to be completed in 2005, postal spokesman Duke Gonzales said. But there is no construction timetable.

Although the postal service is a government corporation, it gets no federal construction money, Gonzales said. Daily operations and construction of new buildings have to be paid from postal revenues.

A 2 1/2-acre site for a new Pahoa building has been owned by the Postal Service for well more than a decade, Gonzales said.

The existing Pahoa building was dedicated in 1967, Uyetake said. In the three decades between the 1970 and 2000 censuses, the surrounding Puna population grew sixfold. "It's increasing every day," Safarik added.

Despite the cramped, outdated building, Uyetake said he has received no complaints other than the comments by Eger, who said, "We are tired of being ignored by federal, state and county services, and patience is wearing very thin."

Not everyone shares Eger's disgust over the situation. When asked about the situation, Postal patron Brian Schwery responded with a laid-back Puna attitude: "The guy needs his morning cup of coffee," he said.