A tour Wednesday of a United States Postal Service emphasized to Congressman Henry Cuellar not only the need for more resources but also the need for an entire new office for south Laredo.

Laredo has three USPS offices with the main location on Saunders Street along with a location downtown and another on Del Mar Boulevard which serves north Laredo.

“In my opinion, the south of Laredo has grown a lot, yet there is no post office center for the people in the south as they are counted as being a rural area and are part of the county, which also services the people of Rio Bravo and El Cenizo,” Cuellar said. “I want to work with local officials in order to make sure that area of the city has a center.”

The benefits of a new office according to Cuellar include better serving the community while providing postal workers with better control of sorting and delivering in south Laredo. He said the new office is something he will push for if the $25 billion Delivery for America Act passes.

“The bottom line is that we will fight for a post office in south Laredo because right now they are considered a rural area,” he said. “However, we need a post office in that part of Laredo as it is growing very fast.”

Although the congressman said there is no data to indicate what resources are needed for south Laredo, he is working with several local and state officials to conduct that research. However, Texas State Association of Letter Carriers district representative Luis Alfonso Palacios pointed said the need for the area is obvious even without data.

“Right now, they are all working here as they go to El Cenizo and Rio Bravo all the way over there from here,” Palacios said. “Therefore, we need a Zone 46 section over there, which would be good because for postal workers it would be much closer for them, less travel time and a lot closer to bring faster service.”

The idea was also supported by Ignacio Flores, the president of the United Carriers Association in Laredo.

“Having another post office in the south would greatly facilitate for the people here in Laredo not just in the south but also help us carriers have more flexibility with the overburdened amount of work that we have right now,” Flores said.

Despite what the officials consider an obvious need, the data is needed for the project to become a reality.

“Once we get the data, we can then support it which I think we will once we know better and then fight to get it done,” Cuellar said. “This is a higher thing that I’m going to work on and work with south Laredo officials to push for something that could serve everything from south Laredo to Rio Bravo and El Cenizo.”

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