Sun City Summerlin to lose post office branch

By Jeff Pope

Friday, Feb. 27, 2009 | 3:44 p.m.

When drug stores close, shoppers are forced to drive elsewhere to purchase prescriptions, food and household items.

When the Longs Drugs in Sun City Summerlin closes, customers will have to look elsewhere to mail packages and buy stamps, too.

When CVS, which bought out Longs Drug last year, converts the store at 9430 Del Webb Blvd., it will not continue the contract with the U.S. Postal Service branch inside Longs, post office officials have confirmed.

CVS representatives did not return calls asking about the post office or whether the store would remain open, though a manager confirmed the store would change to the CVS brand in July.

For residents like 77-year-old Edna Maycott, who drive a golf cart instead of a car, the branch closing will create transportation issues.

"I really don't drive that much anymore," she said. "I get my prescriptions, I do some grocery shopping, beauty supplies and I use the post office. I like having the convenience close to home."

The next closest post office is at Town Center and Summerlin Parkway, a 2-mile difference, which is too far to walk and potentially dangerous in a golf cart.

Ward 4 City Councilman David Steinman, who is also the vice president of the Sun City Summerlin association board, enlisted Mayor Oscar Goodman to co-sign a letter to CVS asking for the postal branch to remain open.

"We just have to keep the heat on the best we can and hope that they understand that this is a different group of people that are using their particular store and they need services like this," Steinman said.

CVS representatives did not return calls for comment.

Edward and Marie Wright took the news in stride and, although they will drive to the next closest post office, they hate to see the branch closer to home shut down.

"It saved us gas and it saved us time," Edward Wright said.

The Longs location is one of several post office branches forced closed by a retailer.

Albertsons and Lucky grocery stores closed three stores in February that had Post Office Express branches in them. The stores were Albertsons at 2300 E. Tropicana Ave.; Albertsons at 6140 W. Lake Mead Blvd.; and Lucky at 4801 W. Spring Mountain Road.

To offset the closures, the postal service plans to start a "post office on wheels" program within the next month that would provide weekly services directly to senior communities throughout the Las Vegas Valley, spokeswoman Marilyn Fenimore said.

Jeff Pope can be reached at 990-2688 or jeff.pope@hbcpub.com.