It took 30 months of unfaltering community support, lobbying of elected officials, and a hearing before the Postal Regulatory Commission, but on Monday, the Hacker Valley Post Office in northern Webster County opened for business for the first time since July of 2009.

The new post office is in a new building -- the converted cafeteria of the old Hacker Valley Elementary School -- and is operated as a Contract Postal Unit, or CPU, rather than a full-fledged post office with a salaried, benefit-receiving postmaster.

"I can't handle bulk mailing or passport applications, but you can get everything else that regular post offices offer here," said Cindy Miller, the CPU contractor in charge of the Hacker Valley Post Office.

The newly reopened post office is also open fewer hours per week than the former post office operation -- 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays.

"It beats driving back and forth between Rock Cave or Diana to get a money order," said Junior Silman as he waited for the office to open to buy a money order and postage stamps. "That takes a lot of time and money. I missed not having a post office here and I'm not the only one. I'm glad they finally got things straightened out."

After the entire 67-member student body of Hacker Valley Elementary School crowded into the Post Office lobby to sing the "The West Virginia Hills" and perform a ceremonial ribbon cutting, 88-year-old area resident Retha Casto mailed the first letter processed at the new facility. It was the same letter Casto sent to the Postal Regulatory Commission in 2009, complaining about the way in which the Hacker Valley Post Office was closed that launched the review process leading to Monday's reopening.

The post office was closed under an emergency suspension order on July 1, 2009, after the lease expired on a small block building that housed it.

Hacker Valley area residents first heard of plans to close the post office during a public hearing on the suspension order one month before the facility closed. At the hearing, Postal Service officials told an overflow crowd at Hacker Valley Senior Center about the lease termination, about a survey that identified no suitable replacement sites, and about a building freeze that prohibited new post office construction.

"The Postal Service representatives basically told us it was all over for the post office," said Brian Van Nostrand, a Hacker Valley potter who headed the community's ad hoc committee to save the post office, in a 2009 Gazette interview.

Hacker Valley residents learned that the Postal Service had known of plans by the former post office's landlord to terminate the lease several years before the hearing, which they said should have given the agency adequate time to find an alternative site.

After the 2009 hearing, a Hacker Valley sawmill operator offered to build with donated materials, land and labor, an all-new post office to lease to the Postal Service. Von Nostrand's son, an architect, drafted plans for the building and submitted them to the Postal Service. The Webster County school board offered to make the old Hacker Valley Elementary School's cafeteria available for a nominal fee. The former landlord offered to extend the lease until a replacement structure could be found.

Dozens of citizens followed Casto's lead and wrote letters to the Postal Regulatory Commission complaining about hardships that would result from closing the post office, and asking the Commission to look into the closure.

In an October 2009 ruling, the PRC maintained that while it had no authority to order the Postal Service to reopen the Hacker Valley Post Office, it urged the Postal Service to "refrain from the improper use of the emergency suspension process" to close post offices like Hacker Valley's.

"History strongly suggests that the Postal Service is using its suspension authority to avoid the explicit Congressional instructions to hear and consider the concerns of patrons before closing post offices," the commission concluded.

Based on the Hacker Valley case, the PRC began a review of more than 400 post offices nationwide where operations were suspended through the Postal Service's emergency suspension process, to see if they had effectively, and possibly illegally, closed.

The Hacker Valley case drew coverage from The Wall Street Journal and National Public Radio, in addition to the Gazette.

Last year, the Postal Service began looking into the possibility of establishing a Contract Postal Unit in Hacker Valley.  In November, Miller, who trained at the Rock Cave Post Office, was identified as the successful bidder.

After getting bonded and installing walls, a drop ceiling, counter and other necessities in the former cafeteria, and decorating it with color photos of area nature scenes, Miller received her inventory of Postal Service products and was ready for business.

"It's exciting to finally be open," she said.

Miller said the CPU approach costs the Postal Service a little less than half what it was paying to operate the old Hacker Valley Post Office, based on documents filed in closure hearings.

"For some communities, it's a wonderful idea," she said. "Here, it cuts the hours of operation, but it's much better than nothing."

"I would hate to see any postmasters lose their jobs, but it seems like this approach is worth looking at in rural areas with bottom-line problems," said Renee Anderson, a member of the Hacker Valley Post Office Committee.

Monday's opening was the result of "a collective effort by a lot of people in a community that wouldn't give up," said Van Nostrand.

Souvenir envelopes with stamps bearing the Hacker Valley cancellation mark were among Monday's top selling items.

Reach Rick Steelhammer at rsteelham...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5169.