The Villages Daily Sun

THE VILLAGES — It’s only minutes before the mail window opened Tuesday morning but already a line of customers had formed outside.

Jim Gibb was one of those Villagers waiting for the mobile postal unit to open at its customary spot just outside the Sweetbay grocery store in Lake Sumter Landing.

Since its deployment in mid-April, the U.S. Postal

Service’s retail mobile unit has become an indubitable success in The Villages, Lady Lake Postmaster Greg Migliori said.

“We’re getting real good usage out of it,” Migliori said. “I’ve been very pleased so far.”

The mobile unit also is earning positive remarks

from Villagers like Gibb who now rely on it for retail mail services.

“I think it’s super,” Gibb said. “Now, I don’t have to go all over the place to look for stamps or mail a package.”

What makes Gibb’s life easier is the mobile unit’s golf-cart accessibility.

“I normally come in the golf cart,” Gibb said.

Otherwise, Gibb must travel up to Spanish Springs Town Square and cross the golf cart bridge over U.S. Highway 27/441 to reach the post office in the historic section of The Villages.

“Or I get in my car and drive to the Oxford post office, which just is not practical,” Gibb added.

That’s why Gibb encourages his neighbors to use the mobile service as often as possible.

“I hope enough people utilize it enough so that we might get a (fixed) post office in this area in the near future,” Gibb said.

There’s no question about customer demand for the mobile unit’s retail services, Migliori responded.

When it first opened, Migliori said, the mobile postal unit averaged from 50 to 60 transactions a day.

“Now we average about 180,” Migliori said. “We’re looking forward to the time when we have to staff more people or are there for more days. I think it will increase a lot as the seasonal Villagers start to migrate south again.”

If demand necessitates it, Migliori said he might consider deploying the mobile unit more than just on Tuesday or Thursday.

“Management at Sweetbay has given us the permission to be there as often as we want,” Migliori said.

David R. Corder is a reporter with the Daily Sun. He can be reached at 753-1119, ext. 9066, or at david.corder@thevillages media.com.