POSTAL SERVICE TO SHUTTER RURAL OFFICES
Wednesday, July 20th, 2011 -- 10:15 AM
Faced with a staggering budget deficit, the U.S. Postal Service is preparing to close down a number of rural post offices, including at least one in our area.Pressure from other delivery companies and electronic mail has significantly reduced their volume and revenue.
"It's not an easy situation we're looking at," warns Pete Nowacki, a spokesperson for the USPS? Twin Cities office, which oversees operations in the western 1/3 of the state.
"Last year, the Postal Service lost about $8.5-billion. We're looking at similar losses this year," he explains.
They?re looking at several options to try to close the deficit.
They've increased the price of stamps and expressed support for 5-days per week delivery, but they've been unable to win Congressional approval for the latter.
They're also closing low-volume offices?mostly in rural areas.
Locally, the Humbird Post Office has been earmarked for potential closure.
"How it starts is we send out a questionnaire to everybody impacted," Nowacki says. "Then we hold a public meeting, we take comments from folks and explain what we're looking at, how we propose to administer it and what we can do to make the transition smoother for them."
The Postal Service still must make a ?final determination? about the fate of the Humbird location.
If they close the facility, Humbird residents will be served by the rural carrier from Merrillan.
"Rural carriers...are a vastly underused resource by our customers. We refer to them as a post office on wheels," he explains. "So many of the things you can do at a post office, like buy stamps, mail packages, put your mail on hold, you can do that with contact with your carrier."
Nowacki says the actual closure will probably happen in the fall or toward the end of the year.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.