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BOCANEWSPAPER.COM
MAY | 2018
Moving Downtown Post Office? No decisions yet from USPS By: Diane Emeott Korzen Contributing Writer Mrs. Cichelli has been a longtime loyal customer of the Downtown Boca Raton Post Office located at 170 NE 2 Street. “This has been my post office for 16 years. I’ve had the same [post office] box here. It’s a fantastic location. Nobody wants to give it up!” Cichelli stopped by her local post office on the way home from a March 29 Public Input meeting regarding possible relocation of the Downtown Post Office. She described the meeting as having “no clarity. What is that big word we like to use? – Ambiguous. We want it to stay here,” she said of the 58-year-old post office whose building bears a 1960 dedication plaque from when Dwight D. Eisenhower was President of the United States, and Arthur E. Summerfield was Postmaster General.
WWII veteran Ed Skolkin is all smiles after volunteer pilot Chris Culp gives him a Dream Flight on a WWII era-Boeing Stearman biplane at the Boca Raton Airport. Staff photo.
Boca Raton veterans lifted off ground for ‘Dream Flights’ By: Marisa Herman Associate Editor WWII veteran Ed Skolkin hoisted himself, with a little help, into the cockpit of a WWII era-Boeing Stearman biplane at the Boca Raton Airport. He signaled the pilot with a thumbs up when he was ready to be lifted into the warm sky. Smiling, the volunteer pilot taxied down the runway preparing for takeoff on a 15-minute flight over the city of Boca Raton. He would repeat the flight several times as a way to say thank you to senior veterans. The flights were given last month for free thanks to Ageless Aviation Dreams Foundation, a nonprofit with a mission of “giving back to those who have given,” by providing “Dream Flights” in the same aircrafts used to train aviators many years ago. “It’s exhilarating,” Skolkin said of being in the air. “It was wonderful. I saw parts of Boca Raton I have never seen from the ground.” The 90-year-old served in the Navy dur-
ing WWII. He was 17 when he entered the service and spent a few years in active duty and then in the Naval Reserve. He served as a radioman and flew airship blimps over the Pacific and Atlantic oceans during the war. He was responsible for detecting enemy submarines. When volunteer pilot Chris Culp thanked Skolkin for his service, Skolkin told him, “I wish I could do it again.” Culp is a retired Oregon State Trooper, who has been volunteering his time as a pilot to the nonprofit for the past three years. He said the group has provided more than 3,000 flights to veterans across the country in 41 states. “It’s very rewarding,” he said of his time flying the veterans. “It’s a fun position. We get to travel around the country and we get to share this experience with the veterans. They are very grateful.” He said one of the volunteer pilots equates the planes to a time machine for the veterans.
“It brings back a lot of good memories for them,” he said.
Nearly 125 people packed into the tight-knit quarters at the Boca Raton Community Center Annex at 260 Crawford Blvd. for the 4:30 p.m. Thursday public input meeting hosted by representatives from the U.S. Postal Service in which few answers were given, and no decisions were made. Mayor Susan Haynie and Council Members Scott Singer and Andrea Levine O’Rourke were in the audience, as were several news outlets. “The frustration is: People came to hear what is going to happen…Get us a decision ASAP!” said Council Member Levine O’Rourke.
Richard Milan, 86, remembers the day he was drafted into the Army. It was the same day that Congress enacted a law that the draft couldn’t take a student and he was college bound.
Mayor Haynie said the city will push out contact information for USPS so residents can voice their opinions.
He finished school and was drafted into the medical service as a medical specialist overseeing pilots’ eye exams in the late 1950s. He was part of a medical evacuation team and he learned how to fly helicopters.
According to Juan Nadal, USPS Marketing Manager for the Southeast Florida Region from Ft. Pierce to the Keys, the March 29 meeting began a 30-day public input period.
Milan said he was most looking forward to “Just the idea of getting up and going into the wild blue yonder.”
Singer said an unanimous decision was made by Boca CRA Board on March 26, to pass a resolution stating the city wants to keep the post office where it is.
“USPS will review comments/concerns prior to making a decision,” said USPS Strategic Communications Specialist for the Alabama & South Florida Dis[CONT. PG 2]
The cockpit is also a familiar place for Navy veteran Eugene Brogan. He enlisted in 1950 and went to flight school. After serving in the Korean War, he stayed in the reserves for 10 years and then became a commercial pilot for United Airlines. The 89-year-old isn’t flying anymore, but said he enjoys being a passenger as well as calling the shots from [CONT. PG 2]
Crowd of residents at afternoon public input meeting on moving the Downtown Post Office. Photo by Diane Emeott Korzen.