What a $.42 cent stamp will buy

Post office bought S.C. mansion so postmaster could transfer


By ADAM BEAMabeam@thestate.com
The U.S. Postal Service is helping a former Lexington postmaster sell his $1.1 million home on Lake Wateree.
Ronald Hopson was transferred from Lexington to Carollton, Texas, last year — just before the Postal Service instituted a hiring and promotion freeze.
As part of the Postal Service’s employee relocation program, a relocation company paid Hopson for the appraised value of his home, which sits on five acres on Lake Wateree near Winnsboro in Fairfield County.
That company, Cartus, will then sell the home — typically for less than the appraised value. The Postal Service will pay Cartus the difference, plus administrative and other fees.
It’s unclear what Cartus paid Hopson for the home.
The Postal Service usually ends up paying between 14 percent and 20 percent of a home’s value, according to Greg Frey, a Postal Service spokesman.
That could range from $168,000 to $240,000.
“We don’t buy houses,” Frey said “We enable our employees who qualify to serve the company to move. If that means there is some way we can help ... that’s what we do.”
The Postal Service has been hard hit by the economy, especially with the decline in direct-mail advertising, Frey said. The board of governors is considering cutting back mail delivery in an effort to save money.
All of the Postal Service’s revenue comes from postage, Frey said.
Efforts to reach Alison Sedney, Cartus’ communications director, were unsuccessful Friday.
Efforts to reach Hopson were unsuccessful.
Hopson earns $92,000 a year in his new job as a branch supervisor, Frey said. Frey said he could not say how much Hopson earned while he was working in Lexington, because the law only requires that the Postal Service release an employee’s current salary.
Hopson bought the land, which was vacant, in 2007 for $150,000, according to Fairfield County Assessor Wendell Irby.
The county has appraised the house, which has six bedrooms and an indoor pool and spa, at $1,161,940, Irby said.
While Cartus paid Hopson for the house, technically Hopson still owns it. The deed will not transfer until the house is sold to a new owner.
Frey said not all homes are eligible for the relocation program. In February, in response to lowering home values because of the mortgage crisis, the Postal Service lowered the cap for the program to $1 million.
Under the new policy, Hopson’s Lake Wateree home would no longer be eligible.
The Postal Service is an independent government agency, meaning it is run by a board of governors appointed by the president, but receives no taxpayer money.
The Postal Service has 665,000 employees and nearly 33,000 post offices across the country.

My Thoughts:
The USPS has just announced that they may be cutting deliveries on some days during the week because they are experiencing money shortages. It is also rumored that they may request a bailout from our government (that would be us), and the sad part is that they will probably get it. This is just another example of the greed and waste that is so prevalent in this country today.