Hundreds of post offices dropped from U.S. Postal Service closure list

February 8th, 2012 | Postal Service | Posted by Sean ReillycloseAuthor: Sean Reilly Name: Sean Reilly
Email: sreilly@atpco.com
Site:
About: See Authors Posts (335)

Tweet

Remember that U.S. Postal Service list of about 3,650 post offices under study for closure? The number is now closer to 3,270.

The reason: Since the original roster was released last July, 380 facilities have quietly been given a reprieve, according to the Postal Service.

In many cases, USPS officials decided that closing wasn’t feasible because there was no other post office within an acceptable distance. In other cases, they cited “negative community impact” or decided that closing wouldn’t be cost-effective, according to an official spreadsheet. Not surprisingly,one of the biggest gainers was Alaska, where 31 post offices have so far been spared, but many other states and the District of Columbia also had facilities come off the list.

And while congressional pressure has prompted the mail carrier to halt any actual P.O. closings until mid-May, the reviews continue, according to spokeswoman Sue Brennan, meaning that the list could shrink further.

“When we announced the moratorium,” Brennan said in an email, “we stated the established processes would continue.”

But changes are coming, according to Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe, after the Postal Service got an earful from communities upset at the possibility of losing their post offices.

“We’ll soon be issuing a framework for a revised retail strategy that we hope will accommodate many of the concerns that we have heard,” Donahoe said at Thursday’s Board of Governors meeting. “Especially in rural communities where we have a lot of low-activity post offices.”

Incidentally, FedLine got some feedback, too, from readers interested in seeing the entire list of post offices that have–at least for now–come off the closing review list. Your wish is our command, so here it is, broken down by state:

Tags: Sue Brennan, U.S. Postal Service

Read more | Comments (9) | Leave A Comment)

One state spared from possible post office closings

July 26th, 2011 | Postal Service | Posted by Sean ReillycloseAuthor: Sean Reilly Name: Sean Reilly
Email: sreilly@atpco.com
Site:
About: See Authors Posts (335)

Tweet

Here’s a fun fact to know and share about the post office
downsizing process unveiled today: From Alaska to Rhode Island, every state
(and the District of Columbia) has post offices under review for closing.

Except one: Delaware, which is also the home state of one of
the U.S. Postal Service’s closest allies on Capitol Hill: Democratic Sen. Tom
Carper.

Carper not only chairs the Senate subcommittee that oversees
the troubled mail carrier, he is also lead sponsor of the Postal Operations
Sustainment and Transformation (POST) Act, which is the Postal Service’s
preferred bill for addressing its many problems, mainly through a combination
of increased management flexibility and billions of dollars in refunds of federal pension overpayments, as identified by the agency’s inspector general and an outside actuarial firm.

Carper, however, sought no special treatment for Delaware, said spokeswoman
Emily Spain, who attributed the outcome to the review process used by the Postal
Service, which generally targeted post offices with low revenue or customer traffic numbers.

In an email this afternoon, USPS spokeswoman Sue Brennan said she thought
the result had more to do with the low number of post offices–only 70–in
Delaware as a whole.

Tags: Emily Spain, Sue Brennan, Tom Carper, U.S. Postal Service

Read more | Comments (3) | Leave A Comment)