Clarke County Democrat

Rural post offices get reprieve but look for fewer service hours




Some 3,700 post offices, targeted for closing by the U.S. Postal Service, have gotten a reprieve but the tradeoff will be severely reduced hours at 13,000 small post offices nationwide, some to just two hours a day.

Locally, the Campbell and Whatley post offices had been on the closing hit list but will apparently remain open. However, their hours of operation will be cut to two hours a day. Currently, Campbell is open four hours a day and Whatley six hours a day.

“We have listened to our customers in rural America, and we’ve heard them loud and clear: They want to keep their post offices open,” said Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe. “Any rural community that wants to retain their post office, we will work with them to do that.”

The National Newspaper Association, which represents a number of community newspapers across the nation, including The Clarke County Democrat, lobbied for keeping small offices open, even if it took reducing hours.

NNA President Reed Anfinson, publisher of the weekly Swift County Monitor News in Benson, MN, said, “There is a widespread feeling in small towns that the Postal Service is poised to abandon rural America. From reduced delivery times to the ending of Saturday mail to the post office closings, it seemed as if we were running a gantlet of bad news on mail service. Although NNA did not oppose post office closings in general, we recommended a different approach. Our thought was that many of these offices could remain open if USPS used a ‘circuitrider’ approach for postmasters, staffed the offices with lower-level clerks, and simply kept the offices open for fewer hours. That idea came from our Postal Committee Chairman Max Heath, who testified on it before the Postal Regulatory Commission.”

NNA continues to work to keep as many central mailprocessing centers open as possible around the country. Two hundred have been proposed for closing.

“The proposed cuts would have a devastating impact on the delivery of mail, including newspapers, prescription drugs and packages across rural America,” Anfinson said, adding, “The mail is more important in rural America than in many other spots around the country.”

Even though hours may be reduced, post office customer mailboxes would remain open and community addresses and Zip codes would be retained. Proponents of keeping post offices open say the offices and a Zip Code give communities an identity that would be threatened if they are eliminated.

But Steve Hutkins, a New York University professor who runs the website Savethepostoffice.com says the openings won’t help.

Hutkins told USAToday, “Reducing post offices would be devastating—how can a business run only being open two hours a day. The alternative options for the 13,000 post offices are not at all adequate. It’s just a slow death rather than a quick one.”

The Postal Service is trying to combat reduced income and reeling expenses. The agency expects to lose more than $8 billion this year and say annual losses could exceed $18 billion by 2015.

While increased Internet and e-mail usage has reduced mail use, postal officials took steps last week to combat what it says is another big expense to the agency.

The Postal Service announced that it would discontinue mandated payments to its employees’ retirement fund. The Postal Service puts about $800 million into the retirement fund annually but postal officials say it is over funded now, by nearly $7 billion and that the money can be better spent elsewhere.

Current and proposed hours for area offices

Here are the current and proposed hours for some post offices in the area. They included offices that were previously targeted for closing.

Fulton 8 6
Whatley 6 2
Coffeeville 8 4
Frankville 4 2
Gainestown 6 4
Leroy 8 4
St. Stephens 8 4
Sunflower 4 6
Tibbie 8 2
Wagarville 8 4
Campbell 4 2
Dixons Mills 8 6
Catherine 8 6
Lower Peach Tree 8 4
Magnolia 6 2
Myrtlewood 8 2
Nanafalia 8 4



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