Spring Hill Post Office Hosts Passport Days

It can be difficult to get a passport in Hernando County.

If someone lives and works in Spring Hill, he or she must carve out enough time during the work week and travel across the county to the Brooksville courthouse to apply for one.

The U.S. Postal Service noticed and asked a "passport team" to arrive at the Spring Hill Post Office six weeks ago and take applications.

"We had a really big turnout," said post office manager Wallace Davis. "We thought we'd try it again."

Saturday's event was just like the one six weeks earlier. The room was packed, mostly with people getting photographed and/or submitting applications for passports.

Post office employees from Hudson and New Port Richey spent six hours at the Spring Hill location serving more than 100 customers.

Davis thinks it is possible a full-time employee who specializes in passport applications will begin working at the Spring Hill location in the near future. There seems to be more demand for such a hire. Passports are now required for cruises.

"The number of people who need passports has gone up," Davis said.

He has been told Spring Hill has the busiest post office outside of Tampa. On Saturday, it became that much more hectic with the addition of more than 100 passport seekers.

"I might leave if McCain is elected president," yelled one person in the crowd.

A man answered her by saying he would leave if Barack Obama is sworn in as the next president.

"I'm a people watcher, so I'm enjoying this," said Carol Lusk, of Spring Hill, who was surveying the swelling crowd.

She had no immediate plans to travel overseas, but said she wanted to get a passport in case she changes her mind.

"More often than not, you hear people say they can't drive to the courthouse during the week to get a passport," Davis said. "I'm sure we'll have another one of these."