What's
New in Carpenter
The Carpenter Bar and Grill is OPEN for business under the management of it's new owner, Ty Peterson! Still great food, maybe better!
Iowa Post Office to Close its Doors
News Story via KAAL
http://kaaltv.com/article/stories/S859329.shtml?cat=0
Posted at: 03/31/2009 10:53 PM
By: Rindi Cooper
(ABC 6 NEWS) - In this struggling economy, everyone is taking a hit even the United States Postal Service.
Carpenter, Iowa is the kind of town where everybody knows your name.
But on Friday, the small community of 140 people will say goodbye to their only post office, and to the man who ran it for more than a decade.
"It’s sad,” says Postmaster Tom Hagan. “It's a landmark that's going to be gone as of Friday.”
Hagan is retiring after 16 years as Carpenter, Iowa’s Postmaster, and since no one is ready to fill his spot, the post office will close its doors after 100 years.
"Every little town is hurting and I don't think this is anywhere near the end of us seeing post offices close,” says Hagan.
That's because nationwide, the United States Postal Service is losing money every year.
So to regain some of the losses, they have to close some post offices.
"The economy is bad with the USPS as much as much as any other company or business and they're going to do what they feel is economically viable."
And life without a post office will be more of a challenge for the community.
They will now have to drive six miles to St. Ansgar to send any mail and use CBU’s to collect their incoming mail.
Not only will residents miss the convenience of having a post office right next door, they're going to miss seeing a familiar face.
"It’s not a coffee shop but you come over and say 'hi' to the postman and he'll help you if you need a roll of stamps or a book of stamps,” says Duane Tesch.
In time, the residents might be okay, but they will continue to miss the man that kept them coming back.
Hagan will be moving to western Iowa when he retires, but he won't forget the years of service.
July 30, 2006
I added a PDF
version of the 1971 Carpenter Centennial Book for all to enjoy! Click
the History menu item
on the left. This is a large file - 12 MB. I have the book in a higher
resolution format, if you are interested in having this book in better
resolution, email me
and we can make some sort of arrangement for you to get it.
June 19, 2006
Carpenter Bar and grill Burns to the ground!
Sometime between 2:00 am and 3:30 am, the long standing
Carpenter Bar and Grill began to burn. The St. Ansgar Fire Department
responded within 15 minutes of the 911 call at about 3:30 am. Grafton
and Northwood assisted too. Thanks to the great work by our area firefighters,
the Dockum TV storage building 12 inches from the bar is still standing.
Click below for some photos of the fire.
Click
Here for photos of the fire (Pictures from
Andrew Wilder and Tom & Kathy DeBower)
If you would like any announcements posted here, please contact us
HERE!
