The Roanoke Times | File February

Mel and Barbara Herwald leave the Williamsville post office in Bath County. The office, which was at risk of closing, will remain open for at least the next year, the U.S. Postal Service said Wednesday.

The Williamsville post office in Bath County will remain open in its current location -- for at least one more year.

The community earlier this year feared the tiny, rural post office would be shut down because the building's owner did not want to renew the lease.

But Cathy Boule, a U.S. Postal Service spokeswoman, said Wednesday a new one-year lease has been negotiated for the 189-square-foot space on Indian Draft Road that has housed the post office for at least six decades. The lease will take effect June 1 and run through May 2010, Boule said.

"The future past that date is still undetermined," she wrote in an e-mail Wednesday. "The Postal Service continues to have a freeze on all new space projects, due to our financial situation."

If the station were to close, mail would be redirected to the post office in Millboro, which is about 25 miles from Williamsville. The post office in Williamsville serves about 140 addresses. It is one of five post offices in Bath County, where the population is less than 5,000 and the county's boundaries span 540 square miles.

The residents of Williamsville banded together in the winter to stand up for the post office by circulating petitions and hosting community meetings. Pam Webb of the Concerned Citizens to Save the Williamsville Post Office said keeping the post office open another year was the group's first phase goal.

"We are presently working on phase two: to find a new location for the post office, negotiate a lease with the postal service and make the new location ready to house the post office, all in one year," Webb said.

"I believe that now is when the real work begins, but we are willing to see it through to the end."