Lahaina residents, elected officials press USPS to rebuild post office, restore home delivery
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Retired Maui businesswoman Vickie Kadotani said she did not know what to think when her mortgage documents and vehicle registration were returned to their senders after she moved into a rebuilt home on family property destroyed in the 2023 Lahaina wildfire.
Kadotani recalled she went to the Lahaina Main Post Office to ask what had happened.
"They told me they were installing cluster mail boxes and had stopped delivery," said Kadotani, who has lived on the property for most of the past 38 years.
"They didn't send any kind of written notice. There was nothing," she said. "I asked them how long it would take to install the cluster mailboxes. They said they didn't know, maybe six months, maybe a year."
Five months later, Kadotani is among a growing number of residents, business leaders and elected officials who are calling on the U.S. Postal Service to restore traditional door-to-door delivery to rebuilt properties in Lahaina.
They also want the Postal Service to reconsider the proposed permanent closure of the Lahaina Downtown Post Office, which was destroyed in the fire that killed 102 people and destroyed more than 2,200 buildings.
The Postal Service said it has not made permanent decisions about delivery to rebuilt properties or the future of the downtown post office.
"Right now, the decisions haven't been made," said John Hyatt, a spokesperson for the Postal Service. "They're still under review, and the feedback from residents is going to be important to that."
Hyatt said the Postal Service has received numerous questions and comments from Lahaina residents who have rebuilt or are rebuilding after the fire. He said the agency continues to evaluate comments from recent community meetings and questionnaires mailed to customers affected by the proposed permanent closure of the downtown post office.
"We are diligently working to evaluate this input and determine next steps," Hyatt said.
He said residents may submit comments by completing questionnaires available at the Lahaina Main Post Office near the Lahaina Civic Center and mailing them to the Postal Service Customer Relations Department by Sept. 26.
However, Lahaina resident Penny Wakida said she went to the post office Tuesday and was told questionnaire forms were not available.
An important service
Kadotani, who operated the gift business Take Home Maui with her husband, said the Lahaina Downtown Post Office played an important role for her business and others in town.
During the holidays, she said, Take Home Maui mailed 40 to 50 packages a day from the downtown post office.
Sen Patel, president of the LahainaTown Action Committee, which represents scores of Lahaina businesses, said the Postal Service should consider rebuilding a larger downtown facility to serve the recovering town.
"I think it's highly important," Patel said.
Patel, who worked for art galleries, said there were at least 20 galleries in Lahaina before the wildfire. He regularly used the post office, nearby banks and shipping services while working in town.
"We want the feel of the town to remain the same," he said.
Residents said Lahaina developed as a walking community, with homes, businesses and services located close together. Many properties are within the federally designated Lahaina Historic District and are subject to historic design guidelines.
They said there is little room in many established neighborhoods for the centralized mailbox facilities commonly incorporated into newly planned subdivisions.
Many Lahaina restaurants, galleries, jewelry stores, clothing boutiques and other establishments began as family-run businesses, and residents said the downtown post office served as both an essential service and a community gathering place.
"The post office is an essential gathering point," said Theo Morrison, executive director of the Lahaina Restoration Foundation, a nonprofit organization that preserves Lahaina's history.
"The fire has already caused significant loss, and further removal of the services would exacerbate this," Morrison said. "The town has to have those things. Otherwise it's just a shopping center, and nobody wants to be that."
Lahaina resident Calvin Cox said his rebuilt home is in the Lahaina Historic District and was required to comply with historic guidelines.
"It doesn't make any sense that we're a new development in a historic district," said Cox, who started a petition seeking the return of door-to-door delivery. "We're asking the Postal Service to reinstate the historic mode of delivery and deliver door-to-door."
Wakida, who has lived in Lahaina for more than 50 years, said imposing standards intended for new subdivisions would undermine the town's historic character. She said many neighborhoods lack sidewalks or appropriate space for cluster mailboxes.
"I take great exception with its definition of a subdivision. They've totally bastardized the definition of it and jumped in and assumed that we're all subdivisions," Wakida said.
Lahaina resident Monica Chihara said the loss of home delivery creates particular difficulties for older residents who have trouble driving and depend on the mail for medications and other essential items.
"To require us to go there, wait in line during their business hours, eight to four, Monday through Friday or Saturday morning, is very restrictive," Chihara said.
Lahaina resident Monica Chihara said the lack of traditional home delivery is creating a hardship for Lahaina residents, especially for the elderly who rely on the mail to receive medications. Photo courtesy Chihara family
Calls for restored delivery
Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen urged the Postal Service in a Sept. 2 letter to preserve and restore direct home delivery for residents returning to properties destroyed in the wildfire.
"Lahaina is not a new community, and its rebuilding should not be treated as new development," Bissen wrote to U.S. Postmaster General David Steiner.
"Homes being reconstructed in Lahaina are existing residential lots in established neighborhoods where families lived and received mail before the fires. They should not lose that service simply because their homes were destroyed."
Bissen said established Lahaina neighborhoods were not designed with predetermined locations, easements or common areas for centralized mailboxes. In many areas, he said, there is no appropriate county property, right of way or commonly owned parcel where the facilities could be installed.
He also raised concerns about the effect centralized delivery would have on kupuna, residents with disabilities and people with limited mobility.
"Recovery should restore what was lost wherever reasonably possible," Bissen wrote. "It should not leave returning families with fewer services than they had on Aug. 7, 2023."
Bissen also asked the Postal Service to reconsider permanently closing the Lahaina Downtown Post Office and to conduct meaningful, in-person community engagement before making a decision.
"The people of Lahaina have spent three years overcoming obstacle after obstacle to come home," Bissen wrote. "Federal, State and County government should be working together to make that return easier, not creating new barriers."
Bissen joined U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda and Maui County council member Tamara Paltin in opposing the loss of door-to-door delivery and the proposed permanent closure of the downtown post office.