In an innovative move, the town of Pec pod Snezkou in the Czech Republic has decided to preserve its post office, which is slated for closure like many others in the country. The city, which profits from a lucrative cable car service to the highest mountain in the Czech Republic, bought the building that has housed the post office since 1911.
The acquisition is expected to cost nearly 29 million koruna. The town purchases the building from the Czech Post through a real estate agency. From May this year, the city plans to operate a partner post office in the building, according to Mayor Ilona Karlíková.
The closure of the post office in one of the most visited mountain resorts in the Czech Republic would have meant that locals and tourists would have to travel 15 kilometers to Dolní Maršov for postal services. The two current postal clerks, who know every resident, will remain in Pec.
The postal workers welcome the town’s move to partner with the post office, a transition that several other mountain resorts have made after the closure of state post offices. The exact postal and marketing services will be maintained, except managing bank accounts and insurance for ČSOB, says Olga Lukešová, the head of the post office in Pec pod Snezkou.
The current post office building, which houses the post office on the ground floor and two apartments upstairs, was built by a local citizen, Adolf Hermann, in 1911. The post office underwent a complete reconstruction in the mid-1990s.
The town has saved this commercially lucrative post office building from commercial use and conversion into apartment flats, which are abundant in Pec. Last year, the Czech Post closed 300 post offices across the country. Gradually, partner post offices began to appear in the Krkonoše mountains, where people already had limited access to postal services.