For the past 10 months, Spanish Fort Mayor Mike McMillian has made the same announcement during city council meetings, and July 17 was no different.

"Congressman Jerry Carl recently sent out a survey to Spanish Fort residents asking for feedback about our Postal Service. Please check your email inbox and fill out the survey. If you did not receive a survey, please send your comments to jerry.carl@mail.house.gov. It is important the congressman and his staff receive your feedback," McMillian said. "So, we can pass them on to the U.S. Postal Service, which is not a government agency. I thought I would throw that in."

The city continues to grow, and U.S. Rep Jerry Carl and McMillian continue to work to bring a U.S. Post Office back to Spanish Fort.

The Spanish Fort post office closed Jan. 15, 2021, after more than 60 years of operation. Postal Service officials announced in 2020 that the private vendor contract to operate the office would expire on Jan. 15, 2021. When no new contract was approved, the post office closed, and Spanish Fort's more than 10,000 residents have been required to use the Daphne post office on Daphne Avenue.

The city of Spanish Fort has fought the closing in federal court and met with federal officials in Washington D.C. to no avail, but McMillian and Carl continue to fight.

Gulf Coast Media contacted Carl's office July 21, to see if there were any new developments and received the following statement:

"Since my first day in office, I have been working with the City of Spanish Fort to restore adequate Postal Service because I understand how important it is for this growing community. For months, Mayor McMillan and I have been coordinating to collect the concerns of Spanish Fort residents who are unsatisfied with the USPS, and our offices have fielded hundreds of complaints," Carl told Gulf Coast Media. "We have repeatedly pushed the USPS to fix this problem, and we will continue doing all we can to get Spanish Fort the Postal Service it needs.

"Most recently, Mayor McMillan and I sat down with the U.S. Postal Service's Office of the Inspector General to voice our frustrations with the USPS's decision. This is just the latest in a series of meetings and efforts I have been working on, and I will continue doing everything I can to push the USPS to fix this problem. In the meantime, I encourage folks to continue submitting their service concerns to my office at jerry.carl@mail.house.gov and directly to the U.S. Postal Service at 1-800-ASK-USPS or online at https://www.usps.com."