Hereford Township's new post office is scheduled to debut Saturday morning. Denise Klavon, postmater of the Hereford Post Office, described it as a homecoming.

            Conversion of a 20-foot by 50-foot swath of the banquet hall at the Hereford Fire Company, located at 1153 Gravel Pike, is nearly complete, according to Klavon. The office's four delivery people and two clerks have been operating from the Alburtis facility.

            "We're putting in the finishing touches right now," she said late Monday morning.

            Last year, fire company officials signed a five-year lease with the USPS. The agreement includes four separate options for an additional five-year lease, according to Dean Marks, vice president of the company.

            Klavon described Saturday as a soft opening for the facility. She said a formal celebration will be scheduled in the spring.

            Mail delivery from the new post office will commence Saturday, according to Klavon. She said that approximately 50 post office boxes have already been rented and that at least 300 more remain available.

            The Hereford post office has operated its delivery out of Alburtis since its previous facility in the township closed nearly two years ago. Its post office boxes were shifted to Palm.

            The USPS ceased operations at 43 Star Road in March of 2019. The agency implemented an emergency suspension at the location because it could not reach a new lease agreement with the property owner, Tamas Logic, Inc., a Massachusetts company, according to Karen Mazurkiewicz, a communications specialist for the U.S. Postal Service.

            "We were hoping to be able to extend the agreement," Mazurkiewicz said 22 months ago. "But it didn't work out. So we're suspending operations until we can find a new location."

In December, following a presentation at the Hereford Fire Company, David M. Wolff –  a real estate specialist with the USPS – explained that the property owner forced the office to close by looking for an excessive lease increase.

            "The landlord was being unreasonable," he said. "We never wanted to leave the township."

            The post office, previously located at the intersection of Route 100 and 29, remained closed for several months following a fire on Christmas Day in 2016. A male juvenile was charged with arson on May 16, 2017. The boy, in his late teens, allegedly admitted to being responsible for starting the fire, according to a news release issued by the Pennsylvania State Police's Reading barracks.

            The juvenile was also charged with recklessly endangering another person and criminal mischief, according to the incident report. The post office suffered fire, smoke and water damage but, according to reports, no mail was damaged.  A firewall kept the fire from spreading to an adjacent convenience store.