Post offices to remain open, but with reduced hours

By Brian Sanders

For postmasters and officers in charge at four Jackson County post offices slotted for possible closure by the U.S. Postal Service, the good news is that they are going to remain open for the foreseeable future.

But those post offices at Circleville, Denison, Netawaka and Soldier will be open fewer hours during the day, according to a strategy announced Wednesday by USPS to keep rural post offices open while attempting to stave off a massive financial shortfall. And with the exception of the Holton post office, all other post offices in Jackson County will also see their hours of operation cut.

USPS officials announced on Wednesday that more than 3,600 rural post offices across the country would be allowed to remain open, including the four targeted for closure studies last year in Jackson County and 134 in total across Kansas. Access to those post offices’ retail lobbies and P.O. boxes will continue as before, and ZIP Codes will remain in place, it was reported.

On the other hand, a total of 362 post offices in Kansas and about 13,000 across the country will have “modified retail window hours to match customer use,” according to Postal Service officials. As a result, some post offices will see their window hours cut to as few as two hours a day.

USPS spokesman Richard Watkins said the number of post office service window hour reductions was calculated based on the work load of each particular office. For example, offices at Circleville and Denison are currently open six hours a day on weekdays, and Netawaka’s office is open four hours a day. Operations at all three offices will be cut to two hours a day, it has been reported.

However, the new hours are not going to take effect immediately, and Watkins said Postal Service leaders will schedule more public meetings to inform customers in affected communities of USPS’ money-saving plans. These meetings, he said, may be like meetings held last fall to inform people about the closure studies, but he added that the meetings to come will likely have “a little better tone” than last year’s meetings.

Postal officials are hopeful that the new strategy will save half a billion dollars in operating costs per year for the postal service, which reportedly posted a $5.1 billion operating deficit for all of 2011 and a deficit of $3.3 billion for the first quarter of 2012. Watkins added that postal officials are looking at Wednesday’s strategy as a “permanent solution” rather than a “stay of execution” for rural post offices.

“We think that this strategy helps us achieve a healthy balance between continuing to serve the rural communities across the country and being able to cut costs efficiently so that we can remain viable into the future,” he said. “There is no magic solution that’s going to cure all of the Postal Service’s financial problems. But this goes a long way.”

The new hour schedules will likely be worked in using a “multi-phased approach” over a two-year period, with Watkins saying full implementation is likely by September of 2014. In addition to the aforementioned hourly changes at Circleville, Denison and Netawaka, Soldier’s post office, currently operating on an eight-hour daily schedule, will see that schedule cut to six hours a day.

Other post offices in the Jackson County area that were not included in the list of post offices being studied for closure will also see their daily schedules reduced. At Hoyt, Mayetta and Effingham, eight-hour days will be reduced to six, and eight-hour days at Whiting, Wetmore and Goff will be cut to four.

USPS will provide an opportunity for the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) to review the plan prior to making any changes, Watkins said. The Postal Service intends to file a request for an advisory opinion on the plan with the PRC later this month.

After the filing, community meetings would then be conducted to review options in greater detail. Communities will be notified by mail of the date, time and location of these meetings.

“The Postal Service is committed to serving America’s communities and providing a responsible and fair approach for our employees and customers,” USPS chief operating officer Megan Brennan said. “The post offices in rural America will remain open unless a community has a strong preference for one of the other options. We will not close any of these rural post offices without having provided a viable solution.”

The new option complements existing alternatives, which include providing mail delivery service to residents and businesses in the affected community by either rural carrier or highway contract route; contracting with a local business to create a “village post office;” and offering service from a nearby post office. Postal customers in Delia are getting their mail via the third option, as their post office closed in August and their mail service is handled through Emmett.

Watkins said the strategy as announced Wednesday will have no effect on the proposed consolidation of the Topeka mail processing and distribution center into a similar center in Kansas City, Mo. An announcement from USPS on plans for Topeka and processing and distribution centers in six other Kansas cities is expected sometime later this week, he added, noting that processing and distribution in those centers will continue for the near future.