Monday, February 14, 2011

Small towns fear losing their post offices

"Rural life has taken quite a beating, and losing the post office would probably be the nail in the coffin," Jack Hutchinson, chairman of the Iroquois Farmers State Bank in Iroquois, Ill., told Judy Keen of USA Today. Hutchinson said he would rather lose Saturday delivery or pay more for postage than lose the office altogether. In Port Wentworth, Ga., mayor Glenn Jones' mother told him, "Son, you just cannot let them get away with this."

In March, the U.S. Postal Service will follow a 57-step process to select the 2,000 post offices that will be closed. Spokeswoman Sue Brennan says because the postal service is self-supporting, it cannot continue without reducing offices, stations and branches. Customers "don't need to come to a brick-and-mortar location with a big flagpole," she says. "Those days are over."

But residents who could lose their local office disagree. Susan Allen, postmaster in Woodland, Ill., population 301, said of small towns, "If they lose their post office they lose their identity." (Read more)

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