Ground work has begun on a new Lebanon post office on Walker Road between S. Main and Second streets.

The design work was done by Fletcher Farr Ayotte of Portland, which also is the architect for the city's new public library and justice center at Academy Square. The contractor for the Post Office is Camco Construction of Spokane.

Completion is scheduled for December.

Pam Putnam, Post Office manager of delivery services in Lebanon, said they hope to move in to the new facility about the first of the year.

Steve Korbich, an architect with Fletcher Farr Ayotte, said the 8,280 square foot building will have a full customer service area, post office boxes and a sorting facility. The exterior will have brick and wood siding. A drive-through mail drop-off lane will be separate from the parking area for 25-plus spaces.

The simple, efficient design was adapted for this particular site from standard post office plans, Korbich said.

The existing post office on Second Street and the sorting facility on Industrial Way will close.

Because it is a federal building on federal land, the city is not involved.

Lebanon Community Development Services Director Walt Wendolowski said Monday he had received a copy of the plans as a courtesy but federal buildings are not subject to city planning and building rules.

"They're a federal agency and, frankly, they do what they want to do," he said. "They're exempt from all local building fees, building inspections and regulations."

He added that, in his experience, federal facilities are well-built.

The city will keep the plans in case the post office ever moves from it and the city needs to know about the building.

Wendolowski said he also was given a look at the traffic engineer's report for the new facility.

The U.S. Postal Service has owned the land on Walker Road since 1986, when the agency was in an accelerated site acquisition program. Before a new building could be constructed at that time, capital building funds dried up.

The Postal Service announced the current project in 2005. At the time, Post Office officials hoped to start construction by the end of that year.