Before it closed indefinitely, the Swannanoa post office was a regular stop for resident Tissica Schoch. She mailed checks for work and shipped off unique handmade quilts for friends across the country. It was also the place where she talked with her neighbors.
“It was less than five minutes to get over there and I could just pop in, check in on the clerks...and see what's going on in their life," she said.
She described how she would run into other neighbors at the office and "just have little connection points."
More than six months after Hurricane Helene, the Swannanoa post office is one of five offices in the region that will not reopen at its current location, according to the United States Post Office.
“The property owners have informed us necessary repairs will not be able to take place,” spokesperson Philip Bogenberger wrote in an email to BPR. “We are looking into alternate locations."
The Fleetwood, Micaville, Marshall and Green Mountain post offices will also not reopen at their prior locations, according to Bogenberger.
The plaza that houses the Swannanoa post office was anchored and owned by Ingles Market. The company has not yet publicly signaled its plans for the property. Ingles did not respond to requests for comment from BPR.
Hurricane Helene damaged 21 post offices, and operations have resumed at 10 so far, according to Bogenberger.
“Any search for a new location would need to follow the USPS relocation process, which includes a public notification and public comment period. A new location also must be suitable for operational need, not only now but in the future,” he wrote.
When asked for a relocation timeline, Bogenberger did not reply.
In the meantime, the Swannanoa post office has relocated its services, including its post office boxes, to a partitioned area of the North Asheville post office on Merrimon Avenue. For Schoch, that means a 40-minute round trip drive – and a much less joyful experience.
“They kind of have them, like, stuffed in the back,” she said. “And then they have this double door that splits in half in the middle that you open up. And they hand you your mail across this half-open door.”
Swannanoa bangs the drums
In the last few months, the campaign to reopen the post office has grown louder.
Dan Slagle, a retired post office worker, is helping lead a campaign to get the Swannanoa post office back. Slagle is a member of the Swannanoa Grassroots Alliance, a nonprofit dedicated to rebuilding efforts in the unincorporated town.
“The post office to me has always been the heart of a community,” Slagle said. “We're Swannanoa, NC and our zip code is 28778. That's a unique zip code for just Swannanoa.”
Slagle said he is worried if the community doesn’t get active and vocal, then the post office may never reopen at a new location.
“The longer we wait for the post office to come back home, the easier it will be for the post office to decide, ‘Well, we've not heard any complaints from the community,’” he said.
Buncombe County Commissioner Jennifer Horton, who represents Swannanoa, said she has seen a huge outcry from residents.
“The cry that we need our grocery store, we need our post office, we need our Ace Hardware open for building essentials, especially at such a time as this that they are rebuilding,” Horton said.
Horton said she is receiving calls, text messages emails and social media direct messages from constituents asking for help.
The residents of Swannanoa deserve a plan, Horton said.
“There's people there that don't have cars. We have elderly. There's two subsidized housing developments that were built there because there was close proximity to a store for their food, medication, and mail,” she said.
Since the post office is federally managed, the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners has little control over the fate of Swannanoa’s station, but Horton said she is working with fellow commissioners to draft a public letter to Ingles Market. The letter was not made public prior to publication.
Schoch said the venue was more than a functional space, and it served as a community hub.
“I didn’t anticipate it having so much of an impact on me. But it does. I really miss it,” Schoch said. “These are pivotal places that keep us together and give us a place to gather. And give us a place to take care of our needs as a community. That's a threat to me and my neighbors to have lost this access.”
Will mail get "DOGEd?"
Widespread federal cuts by the Trump administration may influence if and where post offices lost to the storm will be reopened.
In late March, the former Postmaster General Louis Dejoy said he would cooperate with DOGE to explore cost-cutting measures. A week later, Dejoy stepped down and Deputy Postmaster General Doug Tulino was tapped to replace him.
President Trump said he would consider privatizing the U.S. Post Office, but no plan has been made public so far.
Bogenberger, the U.S. Post Office Spokesperson for the Carolinas, did not respond to multiple requests for comment when asked about how federal cuts could impact local operations in North Carolina.
In a statement, he said the postal service’s goal “remains to reopen as many facilities as possible that were damaged by Hurricane Helene in their current locations, pending necessary repairs by property owners.”
