<br><br>New post office slated for Polacca

POLACCA, Arizona — After 100 years of service to the community of Polacca, a new building may be in the works for the post office—and none too soon.

“We’ve been here 100 years, but we have no post office building. That’s sad,” said Postmaster Sonja Poocha.

The post office in Polacca currently operates out of First Mesa Consolidated Villages’ (FMCV) community building. “We’re leasing it, but it would be nice to have our own full service post office like most communities,” she said.

Poocha said everything in the building is outdated and falling apart.

“We don’t have anything heating. There’s no restroom or water. We have to make do with what we have until we get another building,” she said.

The Polacca Post Office has 550 mail boxes with about 70 empties, but with a growing community and more people taking jobs at the Hopi Health Care Center, Poocha said it won’t be long until they run out of boxes that the public can use.

There is great community support for the project. In fact, according to Poocha, their centennial celebration brought out more than 100 people, despite putting the celebration together at the last minute.

Ivan Sidney, community service administrator for FMCV, said he has been working with postal officials and businessmen so that the post office would be part of a planned Bashas’ business complex. Sidney has been working with Sloan and Associates of Albuquerque on the engineering, planning and design for a Bashas’ grocery store and post office. The complex would be located east of Polacca Airport. The project would cost $3.5 million for a 15,000 square foot Bashas’ and a 4,000 square foot post office. The Bashas’ would also include a bank.

Sidney said Bashas’ has already sent a letter of intent that they would lease the facility. Sidney said Bashas’ would create 90 jobs. He added that Hopi Junior/ Senior High School, located in Polacca, has a lot of activities, but people have no place to eat or gas up.

“We want to make this a reality as soon as possible,” he said about the post office and Bashas’.

Sidney hopes the new post office can be completed by the end of the summer. The Water Corn Clan has donated the land site for development.

The schematic design for the new post office has been worked out with post office officials from Denver, Colorado. They have agreed that once FMCV builds the facility to the post office specifications, the post office will lease the building so that FMCV can pay off the cost.

Sidney said the Polacca post office has been dilapidated for years and was not built for the size of the community. He said that with the recent opening of the new medical center, new NPC branch and radio station that more postal services are needed in Polacca. He noted that Polacca Day School has a new school planned that will draw more students and staff.

“This should be the largest post office on the Hopi Reservation and it isn’t,” he said. “Some Polacca residents have their post office box in Keams Canyon. It would be nice to have it closer to home.”

Sidney said he looks for tribal support on the post office and Bashas’ projects. He said the tribal government could put the project on the fast track by guaranteeing the loans.

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