Post office closure in remote Alaskan village leaves residents waiting for food, medication, paychecks

While the closure—or reduction of hours—of small town post offices is not impacting some locals who are only slightly inconvenienced by traveling a little longer to get to the nearest post office, the same can't be said for people living in remote areas, where the nearest office might as well be a million miles away.

That's the case in Wainwright, Ala., located about 350 miles above the arctic circle in the North Slope Borough, where the 575 residents are reeling from the closure two weeks ago of the local post office, Shannon Riddle reports for KTUU-TV in Anchorage. Robert Grimes, principal of Alak School, told her, "When you shut down the post office, you shut down the lifeline. I have teachers that are running out of medications, out of food, need to pay bills, get their checks, etc. It is the same for the people in the village. There are no roads out here. We do get small planes out here twice a day, but if you have to ship stuff in cargo, it's very expensive. The mail is subsidized, and that's how everything comes through.”

One of the problems is that Wainwright no longer has a postmaster and finding someone willing to re-locate has been difficult, Riddle said. USPS spokesperson Dawn Peppinger told Riddle, “Unfortunately, we are experiencing challenges with finding a Postmaster or Postmaster Relief who is available and willing to fly in to Wainwright and Levelock to operate the local Post Offices." (Read more)