Hundreds of Carson City residents got their first glance Saturday at the new U.S. Post Office at Roop Street and Little Lane when they exchanged their post office box keys for new ones.
The new post office has 5,335 boxes, about 2,000 more than at the old Washington Street location, which closed Friday.
As box holders lined up outside for the 10 a.m. opening, customer service supervisor Gayle Reddick directed the setup of a table and racks with thousand of new brass keys.
Joanne Riekenberg, Young Hee Paik, Dave O'Connor, Narel Ablao and Linda Montiel were among the sales associates who checked IDs and retrieved keys for patrons. In the back room, other U.S. Postal workers were busy filling the boxes with mail brought over from the old office.
Some of the people entering during the first half-hour groaned at the length of the line, but the workers quickly handled the exchanges. Tom and Carolyn Clay said it only took 15 minutes to get their new keys.
"Our street delivery people started their routes from the old post office this morning, but they'll come here when they're done," Reddick said. "All the sorting equipment is being moved over here today and Sunday. We're also busy today installing the computer terminals so everything is ready for Monday's delivery.
Reddick, who started at the Carson City Post Office 20 years ago making home deliveries, said the new office facilities are fabulous.
The customer service area of the new building includes a retail area similar to the Post Office Express facility in the Carson City Super Kmart with a separate cash register.
"There will always be a worker here during regular service hours, so anybody who needs stamps can select them from the wall display and buy them without waiting in the service window lines," Reddick said.
Two stamp vending machines are set into the wall near the front door and an electronic scale that calculates postage amounts is available to customers.
Among the new mail boxes are about 80 that are almost as large as bus-depot lockers. Large parcels for mailbox patrons can be placed in there and tagged keys can be left in their regular boxes so they can retrieve them without needing assistance from the service counter.
The new post office has several design features to make it easy to get into and is less crowded than the downtown office it replaces. The 37,000-square-foot post office features 78 parking spaces for customers, compared to 18 spaces at the Washington Street location. The drive-up mail boxes have their own lane separate from the parking area. A traffic light at Roop and Little is expected to be in place by the end of the year.
But at least one design feature is aesthetic as well as functional. The two-story tower over the entrance was designed after the Paul Laxalt Building, 401 N. Carson St., which housed the Post Office until 1970 and is now the home of the Nevada Commission on Tourism.