Update - Sept. 4, 2009: 200 Local Post Offices Saved From Closure: USPS has decided to remove more than 200 post offices from the list of 677 facilities included on its original post office closure list released in July.
Claiming to be losing $20 million a day, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is considering the closure of nearly 700 branch post offices across the nation. But, you can bet that not all of those offices will be closed.
The post office closure study comes just months after the USPS’ announcement in March 2009 that it would lay off more than 1,400 employees at 400 facilities, and implement another 2-cent postage increase in May.
While this latest closure list is disturbingly large, it is not unusual for the Postal Service to consider closing branch offices, and you can rest assured that not all of the offices on the list will be closed.
Under federal law, the public must be given 60 days' notice of a proposed office closure to enable the persons served by the branch office to evaluate potential impacts of the closure and provide comments. Before any action is taken, the Postal Service often holds local “town hall” meetings to get even more public input.
Factors that often spare branch post offices from closure include distance to the next-closest branch post office and the number of community jobs that might be lost due to the closure. As a last resort, the affected community can appeal the closure of their branch office to the Postal Rate Commission.
Looking at this latest potential closure list, you will notice that the majority the offices being reviewed are in metropolitan areas where other post offices are located nearby. Branch offices in rural areas are often spared. “It is the policy of the Government, as established by law, that the Postal Service will provide a maximum degree of effective and regular postal services to rural areas, communities, and small towns where post offices are not self-sustaining.” (39 U.S.C. 404(b))
In other words, under the law, failure to bring in enough revenue cannot be the only reason cited by the Postal Service for closing a town's only post office.
Also See:
Postal Service Turns a Profit in Q1 2008
Postal Service to Cut 1400 Employees
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Comments
The other day I heard a local car dealer saying they had gotten rid of the clunkers, and now had plenty of great used cars. I am not 100% sure that he meant they had actually kept
the good cars such as you referred to in your article- but when I heard their commercial the first thing I thought was that I thought all cars needed to be crushed not resold. Were there exceptions?