Six Months Later, Walnut Hill Post Office Remains Closed Over Issues With USPS

January 28, 2026

It’s been six months since the Escambia River Electric Cooperative Walnut Hill office reopened after being closed for nearly a year due to mold. But EREC’s contract post office for Walnut Hill remains closed.

The Walnut Hill post office is officially known as a Contract Postal Unit, a small office shared with the electric utility on Highway 99A across from Ernest Ward Middle School. It provided the Walnut Hill community with post office boxes, package pick up and shipping, and normal postal services like mailing and stamps.

The building was closed by EREC in August 2024 due to mold, and post office box customers were able to collect their mail from the U.S. Post Office on Main Street in McDavid. Post office box mail that was uncollected in McDavid was boxed in Walnut Hill on July 29, 2025, and EREC announced the reopening of its office and the post office.

EREC soon learned it was a one-time drop of the previously held mail, and it would not be able to operate the post office until conditions were met and a new contract was established.

Now, EREC says the USPS contract is complete, but they lack access to a USPS scanner required for operation and that they have had difficulty in getting cooperation from the postal service to fix the problems.

“We are working with post office management and trying to get the two IT departments together,” EREC CEO Ryan Campbell said this week. “We are trying to fix the problem configuration with the package scanner.”

In the meantime, the USPS has denied an EREC offer to provide mail services and not packages until the scanner problem is rectified.

“As an added convenience to its customers, the Postal Service offers Contract Postal Units (CPUs) around the nation, such as the one located in the Escambia River Electric Cooperative CPU. Local postal management continues to work with the CPU operator to resolve any outstanding issues at this location,” Tiffany Rowland, Strategic Communications Specialist for the U.S. Postal Service, told NorthEscambia.com this week. She said Walnut Hill post office customers may continue to access mail services by driving to the McDavid Post Office during regular hours.

Campbell said EREC is continuing to work with postal officials for a solution.

“We look forward to getting the post office back open for our membership,” he said.

Pictured top: EREC employee Kim Lambert boxes old mail Tuesday afternoon in contract post office inside the EREC Walnut Hill office. It was the last time the U.S. Postal Service delivered mail to the Walnut Hill Post Office. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.

Comments





Have a comment on this story?

We welcome your comments on this story, but there are some rules to follow::

(1) Be Nice. No comments that slander another, no racism, no sexism, no personal attacks.

(2) No Harrassing Comments. If someone says something bad about you, don't respond. That's childish.

(3) No Libel. That's saying something is not true about someone. Don't do it.

(4) Keep it clean. Nothing vulgar, obscene or sexually related. No profanity or obvious substitutions. Period.

(5) NorthEscambia.com reserves the right to remove any comments that violate our rules or we think to be inappropriate. We are not responsible for what is posted. Comments may not appear right away until they are approved by a moderator.

(6) Limit your comments to the subject in this story only, and limit comments to 300 words or less. Do not post copyrighted material. Comments will not be added to stories that are over 30 days old.

(7) No posts may advertise a commercial business, political candidate or political group, or link to another commercial web site or political site of any kind.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under TOP STORIES