On Wednesday afternoon, the Davis Street branch of the United States Postal Service would have appeared completely normal to any non-Evanston resident. Community members stood filling out paperwork at two service windows while about nine people waited in line. The lobby was generally quiet, with each person doing their own thing.

However, one thing was different: Residents were met with the sweet sound of silence. The notorious beeping noise that haunted the post office for at least the last three years was gone.

Until Feb. 7, post office patrons heard a roughly two-second-long high-pitched beeping sound emanating from the lobby’s fire alarm every 10 seconds or so.

USPS supervisor Martin Friend told The Daily that the post office regularly received phone calls from customers complaining about the sound and that “people just couldn’t tolerate it.”

“​​It hasn’t been so pleasant for people, driving them crazy, I guess that was one of the things they looked at when they came here as they experienced mailing here,” Friend said.

According to reporting by the Evanston RoundTable, the beeping noise was temporarily silenced on Jan. 22, but returned by Jan. 24. Between the afternoon of Feb. 6 and the morning of Feb. 7, the beeps had vanished for good.

To solve the problem, the post office first tried contacting the Evanston Fire Department. But when those attempts were unsuccessful, Friend explained, they contacted the company that originally installed the fire alarm for remediation.

“They came in here, evaluated the situation and then they repaired it, and that made the situation go away,” he said.

According to reporting from the Evanston RoundTable, city spokesperson Cynthia Vargas said the noise was the product of a trouble signal in the annunciation panel of the alarm system.

Friend said he is hopeful that eliminating the beeping noise will improve people’s experience at the post office.

But for some, like Evanston resident Kirsten Coleman, the beeping sound wasn’t a bother.

“I’ve been living here since 2017. This is my local post office, so when I ship anything, this is where I come,” Coleman said. “And beeping I haven’t noticed.”

Coleman isn’t the only one who didn’t discern the noise.

On Tuesday, both longtime Evanston resident Patricia Mysza and Weinberg freshman Arianna Bassini went about their business in the post office without interruption.

Bassini said her experience renewing her passport at the post office was relatively smooth, adding that the staff members she interacted with were “really lovely.”

“All is good,” she said. “No beeping.”

Ultimately, however annoying the beeping noise was — or wasn’t — it’s gone now, and Evanston residents can visit the post office without complaint.

Email: [email protected]

Related Stories:

— Post office dedicated to late progressive icon Abner Mikva 

— Post office renamed after Evanston political icon Abner Mikva 

— Evanston Fire Departments chaplains provide all-around support