The CPU Not in Your Computer

I’ll bet you didn’t know that there is a CPU in Leesburg, and it has nothing to do with a computer.  Neither did I.

There is nothing I dread more than a trip to the Leesburg Post office.  The post office on Catoctin Circle is open from 9 to 5 PM on week days and 9 to noon on Saturday.  Parking is difficult.  Cars wait in line on Catoctin Circle, a four lane highway, to enter the parking lot.  Once inside the line for counter service often extends out the door into the postal box lobby.

During the holidays the situation reached crisis conditions.  In addition to the parking problem, collection bins jammed with over flows.  Customers arriving with packages when the post office was closed and expecting to use the Automated Postage Machine, could stamp their packages but had nowhere to leave them.

A letter I wrote to Congressman Frank Wolf resulted in a call to me from the manager of the Postal Service Loudoun region.  He agreed to get more collection boxes and see that the existing boxes were emptied more often.

He asked me if I was aware of a Contract Postal Unit (CPU) in Leesburg.  I was surprise to find this CPU located at 28-B Plaza Street on the first floor of an office building with ample parking.  But the best news is this CPU is open 7 days a week from 10 AM to 9 PM.  They can provide almost all postal services.  Passport applications are the only exception I am aware of.

For some reason the Town of Leesburg wants to keep this service a secret.  The CPU is inside Loudoun Checks Cashed, which is what the sign over the door says.  A small Postal Service sign with the eagle logo is in the window.  It is almost invisible from the street.

When mailing a package to Europe with a custom form, I asked the very helpful employee about the signage.  He told me the Town had not approved their request for better signage.

The the Postal Service was convinced to put a sign with the location of the CPU on the front door of the Catoctin Circle branch.  That took one phone call from a customer, me.  Not a meeting of local government committees.