Staff photo by Fritz BuschFairfax Post Office Postmaster Lori Kiecker, left, and post office clerk Jane Munsell smile as the Fairfax Post Office reopens Thursday, April 27. The post office closed after an Oct. 2, 2022 fire just north of the post office destroyed two buildings that housed restaurants.

FAIRFAX — Fairfax residents came to the post office for the first time in nearly seven months Thursday and were quite happy to be there..

The post office was closed after an early-morning, nine-alarm fire on Oct. 2, 2022 destroyed two buildings just north of the post office that housed restaurants. The cause of the fire remains under investigation, according to authorities. Ever since, Fairfax residents have had to drive to the Gibbon Post Office for their mail.

Across Park Street (West Main Street) from the post office, Kevin’s Garage owner Kevin Schafer talked about what it means to have the post office open again.

“It’s bustling right away in the morning,” Schafer said. “I’m glad we’re able to get it all back together. Everybody knows (Fairfax Postmaster) Lori Kiecker did her best. Everybody’s excited about it. It’s going to feel like town again. The fire really left a big hole.”

In the post office, Kiecker and clerk Jane Munsell were busy with customers, some of whom needed help remembering their post office box combination.

“Welcome home,” said a woman to Kiecker and Munsell at the post office counter.

“It’s a lot of work to open up again. We’re getting it together,” Kiecker said. “After the Gibbon window closed Wednesday noon, we went over there and put all our mail in tubs, brought it over and re-cased it here. It’s a lot of work, but it felt good to be back. You don’t realize how much you miss something until you lose it.”

“We have to thank the Gibbon Post Office staff. They were very accommodating,” Kiecker added. “It worked well once we got everything in a routine.”

“It’s such a relief,” said Mary Anderson, who sells clothing and collectibles online.

St. John’s and Emmanuel Lutheran Church Pastor Jesse DeDeyne said he appreciated being two blocks from the post office instead of nine miles.

“I’m just happy it’s open here,” said DeDeyne.

Just north of the post office, piles of bricks remain from the two buildings that burned in the fire last fall.

Kiecker said the City of Fairfax offered the use of a community center room as a temporary post office site last fall, but U.S. Postal Service management turned down the offer because they didn’t know when the adjacent building would be released from an insurance company involved in the fire investigation.

Fairfax City Administrator Andrea Merkel said last fall that the USPS’ continued denial of temporary post office space requests were made in favor of repairing the existing post office.

Fairfax Post Office service counter hours are 8:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. and 1 to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 to 11:30 a.m. on Saturday. The post office lobby is open 24 hours.