Photo Courtesy of NYS Assembly
By Michael V. Cusenza
For the first time since Superstorm Sandy tore through southern Queens in October 2012, Broad Channel families can once again mail packages and send letters from their own neighborhood.
In early 2014, the Broad Channel Civic Association reached out to area businesses, and The All American Channel Market and owner Rob Pisani agreed to host a new Contract Postal Unit in the store, located at 925 Cross Bay Blvd.
Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder (D-Howard Beach) and U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) worked on behalf of the civic to get its CPU application quickly approved by the U.S. Postal Service.
CPUs are independent retailers under contract with the USPS that, while not considered full post offices, provide many of the same services and products. They are used by the Postal Service to give customers access to services—stamps, stamped envelopes, priority mail, certified mail, USPS tracking—when existing post offices are overcrowded or far from customers.
Here, BCCA President Dan Mundy, Jr. (l. to r.), Goldfeder, and Pisani celebrate mail services returning to the community.
