Alton post office picks up and moves

ALTON, Ill. (AP) - The U.S. Postal Service is on the move in Alton, Illinois.

The Post Office is moving from the downtown location it leased to a former car dealership. Workers are renovating the space and the government has a 10-year lease with the owner.

The Alton Telegraph reports (http://bit.ly/1scMwTV) that Ameren Illinois owns the 50-year-old building the Post Office will leave Friday. It will open at the new location Tuesday.

Ameren told its tenant in 2009 it would not renew its lease this year.

The company plans to raze the building and clean up soil underneath that is contaminated with coal-gas tar from a manufacturing plant that was there from the mid-19th Century until the 1940s.

Postal officials are examining two other smaller Alton postal stops to determine their long-term viability.

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Information from: The Telegraph, http://www.thetelegraph.com