Vice President of Gallatin Partners who manages the Big Sky Post Office announced this week that the Post Office contract will be extended until May 31.
Jennifer Boutsianis lives in Big Sky, and she, like many other locals, thinks the contract extension is a step in the right direction.
"We have a lot of long-standing locals and having to drive 2 hours roundtrip is something a lot of us can't necessarily do, especially on weekdays," she said. "The fact that they took it upon themselves to ensure that we still have this very needed service is something I think the community is going to be overjoyed about.”
The Big Sky Post Office has been managed by Gallatin Partners since 2002 and was originally supposed to be a temporary facility. This March would be their twenty-first year in their current facility. Vice President of Gallatin Partners, Al Malinowski, said in October that he had terminated the Post Office’s lease and planned to close it without the support of USPS corporate for a bigger facility.
“We let them know we are no longer willing to provide the service in this facility without a long-term plan in place to move to a larger facility that can better handle the needs of our community,” Malinowski said.
I followed up with Malinowski today and he said they have decided to extend the contract of the Big Sky Post office until May 31 because of the positive conversations that are happening with USPS. His hope is for the Postal Service to support the idea of moving into the larger building next door to the current facility, and he believes this extended time will increase their chances of a long-term solution
Big Sky resident, Christian McMasters said, “It's a good thing that they are staying open because without it we wouldn't be able to ship anything out to our company or get personal packages because we live up here in the mountains," he said. “Down in Bozeman, I've heard their performance is poor and up here, we just need them to stay open and stay good.”
Locals hope Gallatin Partners will receive the solution they want from USPS corporate.
“I hope that we can find a bigger space. I mean, I regularly stand in line to pick up packages and there's so many people using general delivery right now that it's evident we need a bigger space,” Boutsianis said.
