Crescent Lake residents have regained some sense of normalcy in their lives since the Odell Sportsman Center reopened Aug. 11.

An official grand opening ceremony is being held today to celebrate the return of one of the community’s only grocery stores.

The new building is 4,500 square feet in size, said owner Mark Bolton. That is about twice as big as the original building, which housed the community’s post office as well.

Now residents want their post office back where they feel it belongs: inside the Odell Sportsman Center.

”The building’s back,” said Bolton. ”We’re up and running.”

The previous building that housed the post office and Odell Sportsman Center burned to the ground in December, while Bolton was out of town. The building was a fixture in the Crescent Lake community for decades, and it was often referred to as a community gathering spot.

Residents not only would like to have a convenient place to go to for their postal needs once again, but they also feel that having their own post office is a vital part of their community’s identity.

After the fire occurred, everyone in the Crescent Lake postal area – which includes Crescent Lake, Odell Lake and Two Rivers – had to make the 16-mile venture to nearby Crescent to get their mail. It was a more-than-30-mile round trip each time. Winter weather sometimes caused them to have to take a different route, which made it a roughly 60-mile round trip.

Crescent Lake residents do have a temporary fix in place.

A postal drop box where residents can send and receive mail is now located near the fire hall, Bolton said, but it is not permanent.

Bolton said the post office set Oct. 31 as the deadline to make a final decision.

He said residents still have to drive to Crescent for many of their postal needs, such as buying stamps or sending and receiving large packages.

The previous post office had 260 boxes, and there was a waiting list for boxes. Bolton and postal officials also signed a five-year contract less than one month before the fire. The contract became null and void as a result of the blaze.

For the past nine months, residents of the small mountain community have been tirelessly trying to get the post office building reinstated in the new Odell Sportsman Center, to no avail.

”I think (the drop boxes) are just really inconvenient, and they’re going to be horrible once the weather turns,” said Kerry Ellington, a resident and business owner in Crescent Lake. ”You lose your sense of community with them.”

Bolton said 400 square feet of the new building is reserved for what he hopes will once again house the post office. He does have a few contingency plans in case the post office doesn’t occupy the space – like renting it out.

”I don’t want to do that,” Bolton said. ”I’d like to see the post office come back, obviously.

For now, he is glad that his new, larger building has the capacity for larger aisles inside. He can carry a broader line of grocery items and have a larger deli section with a hot deli.

”You can see everything, and it’s so bright and cheerful and clean and gorgeous,” Ellington said.

IF YOU GO

The official grand opening for the newly rebuilt Odell Sportsman Center in Crescent Lake will be held from noon to 3 p.m. today at the new building, located at 19954 State Highway 58 in Crescent Lake.