On Friday, April 11, 2026, a federal district court judge in the
United States District Court for the District of Columbia issued a
preliminary injunction in Hyman v. General Services Administration
blocking above-ground construction on the proposed $400 million White
House ballroom, while permitting below-ground construction on "a
bunker and other national security facilities" at the same site to
continue. The ruling, which runs to 47 pages, permits no above-ground
activity; it permits below-ground activity.
Delbert Ashworth, the single-station contract clerk at the Helen
contract post office — the 4-foot-by-6-foot window counter operating
inside Helen Ace Hardware at 7090 South Main Street since 1993 — has,
per his own account, "watched the briefing on this ruling." He has
watched it "more than once."
At 7:47 a.m. Tuesday morning, April 14, Mr. Ashworth taped to the
front of the station's "Local Only" outgoing-mail receptacle — an
eight-gallon steel mail slot affixed to the east wall of the hardware
store, and, per our previous reporting, empty at every Friday
collection since November 2011 — a hand-lettered sign, on a single
sheet of 20-lb bond paper, bearing the text, in black Sharpie:
PER THE RECENT FEDERAL RULING ON THE WHITE HOUSE BALLROOM
Only letters written below ground level will be accepted for
local delivery.
— D. Ashworth, Contract Clerk
The word "below ground level" is underlined in red.
The clerk's reasoning
Mr. Ashworth, interviewed Tuesday afternoon at the window counter,
cited USPS Contract Post Office Operations Manual § 4-13, "Station
Manager Discretion," which permits a contract station to adopt
"reasonable operational policies consistent with the service's safety
and integrity." Asked whether the April 11 federal ruling applied to
a Helen contract post office — or, indeed, to any federal postal
matter — Mr. Ashworth said: "It applies to federal property. My
counter is a federal counter. The ruling is a federal ruling. I am
making a federal connection."
Asked how a local resident would, practically, compose a letter
"below ground level" in a town whose terrain, per the White County
Tax Commissioner's elevation record, sits at an average 1,440 feet
above mean sea level and possesses no public basement facilities, Mr.
Ashworth paused and then said: "I am aware of the storm shelter under
the Helen Library."
The storm shelter under the Helen Library — formally, the Helen
Regional Tornado Safe Room — is a 420-square-foot reinforced-concrete
space located nine feet below grade, accessible via a concrete
stairwell on the building's north side. It is, per the Library's
operating schedule, locked except during tornado warnings.
It is also, per Tuesday afternoon, the sole publicly available
below-grade interior space in the Helen city limits.
Helen Library response
Library Director Nell Hatcher, reached Wednesday morning, confirmed
that she had been contacted by three Helen residents Tuesday evening
requesting access to the storm shelter "for the purpose of writing
letters for the Post Office."
"I declined the request," Ms. Hatcher said. "The storm shelter is
not, by any reading of its funding agreement with the Federal
Emergency Management Agency, a writing facility. It is a tornado
facility."
She added: "I understand Mr. Ashworth's concern for the ruling. I
have concerns about the ruling myself. But we cannot, as a library,
host individual mail composition in our basement, even for very small
envelopes."
USPS response
The United States Postal Service's Southeast Area office, contacted
for comment Wednesday morning, initially asked for clarification on
whether the sign had been issued by a salaried USPS employee or a
contract clerk. Informed that Mr. Ashworth is a contract clerk, a
spokesperson said: "Contract clerk station policies, per our
Operations Manual § 4-13, are matters of station-level discretion. The
Service does not, in the ordinary course, second-guess them."
Asked whether the Service considered the April 11 White House
ballroom ruling to be a legal basis for postal operational policy,
the spokesperson said: "The Service will review the question."
A follow-up asking whether the Service had a timeline for completing
this review was not returned by press time.
The volume
The Helen contract post office's "Local Only" receptacle has,
historically, received approximately zero letters per week. On
Tuesday afternoon, between 12:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m., the receptacle
received, per Mr. Ashworth's count, four letters — all four composed,
per the senders' cover notes, "to the extent practicable, in a
squatting posture." The letters are currently being held pending a
clarification from the Service on whether a squat constitutes the
kind of below-ground-level composition the sign intends.
Mr. Ashworth, asked whether he would, pending that clarification,
consider the four letters provisionally acceptable, said: "I consider
them under advisement."
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