CAVE JUNCTION Ñ Rat-a-tat-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat! Whrrrrr! Clunk! Bump! Bump!

That’s the sound of work beginning in recent weeks at the Cave Junction post office.

Folks around town are excited to see and hear construction at the site of the old post office, which burned down in May.

A new post office at the same site is expected to open this fall, confirmed Kirsten Sherrell, marketing manager for the U.S. Postal Service’s Portland office.

“There’s a lot going on, but I don’t have any details,” Sherrell said, adding more information should be available in a few months.

As for the fire that took out the original structure, investigators are calling it arson, but say they have little to go on.

“We’ve got a shadowy figure on video outside at the back of a vehicle,” said Oregon State Deputy Fire Marshal Charles Chase.

The vehicle he referred to was not a postal vehicle, he added.

Chase said no motive for the fire has been established, but the investigation is still open.

“Hopefully someone will come forward with information,” he said.

At City Hall, across the street from the site, several residents a day have come in to ask when the new post office will open and why workers are dismantling the original concrete foundation, rather than reusing it.

“I just say, ‘It’s the government and the government has its own rules,'” said Helen Early, the city’s planning clerk.

It’s news to Early the post office will open in the fall.

“I heard it would be about a year,” she said, adding she will be glad when construction is complete and the noise ends.

“The pounding gets pretty loud when they are breaking up the concrete. They are making a lot of noise,” she said.

However, Early and others around town expressed hope the new post office and its services will be available again soon.

Currently, a sign at the site refers customers to the temporary facility located next door, or the post offices a few miles to the north in Selma and to the south in O’Brien.

The postal service is offering a $10,000 reward for information about the fire.