I grew up in a small town with a population of about 2,000. The Post Office was in town, such as it was, right down the street from the General Motors car dealership and next to the only dry cleaners in town.
We had a box at the Post Office and it was common to stop to visit and talk with neighbors in or out front of our Post Office. Besides the church and maybe Hazel’s Beauty Parlor, the Post Office was where you got to visit with people. My dad would even take the mile trip to the Post Office on Saturday just to see who he could run into. The name US Post Office Gordon, Georgia was out front of our Post Office along with the American Flag. It was part of our small town’s identity.
Now 3,700 of those post offices, most in small towns, will be gone if the U.S. Postal Service is not prevented from closing them. All told, the postal service intends to review 16,000 of its existing 32,000 post offices over the next decade for possible closure. This most certainly will be a loss in more ways than one to those living in small towns.
The Post Office system seems to be in trouble but I thought serving everyone was the main purpose of this government service and never thought it would come down to closing small town post offices.
I understand small towns are fighting back against closure of their community Post Office but with the financial mess in Washington everything is up for review.
There are initiatives to provide high speed broadband internet service to everyone but will this be able to replace small town Post Offices? Will the drug store or convenience store sell stamps and postal supplies? We will see rows of mailbox stations in central locations where mail can be delivered by a mail carrier? Maybe Senior Centers, Community Centers or other government buildings can be used for this purpose.
Lots of changes going on in today’s economy but closing small town Post Offices never occurred to me as being one.
May 2012 update to this post office story: It has been decided, at least for now, that small town post offices will not be closed, but will have limited operation hours of operation, a plan to save money will mean less money in the budget for local post office employees. They will cut back on their retail hours but access to post office lobbies and PO boxes will remain the same.
Many think to keep these small town post offices open will be a benefit to small towns and save traveling to large towns for post office business.
Right now this is just a plan and is not officially decided for sure, but has to be reviewed by the Postal Regulatory Commission with some town hall meeting in communities across the US to gain community support. This strategy may be implemented over the next several years to be completed by maybe 2014. Stay tuned.
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