Maybe it’s time for a moratorium on post office closures, consolidations, and suspensions. The Postal Service seems to be closing post offices as fast as it can, and communities barely have time to react. Many have had a post office for over a hundred years, yet they’re given just 60 days to respond to a closure notice. With emergency suspensions, … Read More
Postal worker slips on ice in North Dakota, post office closes
In early December, the postal worker running the post office in the small town of Douglas, North Dakota, slipped on the ice, injuring his leg and knee, and the post office was put under an "emergency suspension" for eight weeks. As reported in the Minot Daily News, on May 25, a meeting was held in Douglas to brief postal customers … Read More
Not closed, but not open: An emergency suspension in Beallsville, Maryland
The post office in Beallsville, Maryland, was shuttered for an “emergency suspension” in August of last year because the landlord wanted to raise the rent. According to the Gazette.Net, on Tuesday, May 7, a meeting was held with local residents and Postal Service representatives to discuss making the suspension a permanent closure. Turns out the closing was caused by a … Read More
Investigating the Emergency Suspensions
Although an "emergency suspension" is supposed to close a post office temporarily, just until the circumstances can be corrected, once a post is suspended, it rarely opens again. Back in 1997, a General Accounting Office study found that of the 651 post offices that had been suspended over the previous five years, only 31 had re-opened. Some people think that … Read More
Moving toward Privatization
The Action Plan report discussed in the previous post was produced by the USPS with the support of three consultants — Accenture, The Boston Consulting Group, and McKinsey & Company.  McKiney did the survey on consumer attitude toward closing post offices that showed 80% of consumers would not be bothered if their post office closed and postal services were … Read More
Post Office Obit: The End of Brick-and-Mortar Post Offices
The Postal Service has begun the process of closing 2,000 post offices, and it has its eye on “discontinuing” and “consolidating” as many as half of its 32,000 offices because they’re operating in the red. Don’t think it won’t happen. The Postal Service has already started moving into alternative “retail outlets,” and it’s been boasting that that there are now … Read More
Trying to stay calm and collected in Plover
Plover, Iowa, sits in Powhattan Township, which was first settled in 1864. The township name honors the father of Pocahontas. Plover got its first post office in the early 1870s. A meeting is set for June 8 to talk with a USPS representative about closing the post office. As reported in The Messenger, one town resident is fighting to keep … Read More
People are pretty upset in Freedom, WY
Freedom is a small hamlet in Wyoming, population 214. It sits on the stateline with Idaho, and, according to Wikipedia, "the community was settled as a border town by Mormon polygamists in order to escape arrest for polygamy: they could be free from Idaho police simply by walking into Wyoming. The community was named for the freedom it gave these … Read More
Sorting through the Closings
The past week has seen many more closing announcements. Here are a few of the stories in the news: KWTX TV reports that more than 70 residents of the town of Leroy, Texas, turned out for a meeting to support their post office. They signed petitions and were encouraged to write letters to their lawmakers. “If the post office closes, … Read More
Manufacturing Emergency: Stories of Post Office Suspensions
It can take months for the USPS to go through the bureaucratic process of closing a post office, but under the law’s provision for an “emergency suspension,” the USPS can shutter a post office in as little as 24 hours. According to the Postal Operations Manual (download pdf), these suspensions are supposed to be temporary closings for unusual circumstances—a natural … Read More
Taking up arms against the USPS in Norwich, CT
The post office in Norwich, Connecticut, was built in 1905. An addition was built by the New Deal in 1938, and the post office was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. It contains a mural, "Taking Up Arms – 1776," painted in 1940 by George Kanelous, who was such a perfectionist he’d paint over his own … Read More
Groundhog Day in Danbury: Historic Post Office on the Chopping Block—Again
At the geographical center of Danbury, Connecticut, is the Main Street Historic District. It has 97 buildings of historic and architectural significance, and two of them are post offices—the Old Post Office (1876) at 258 Main Street, now home to a financial group, and the current post office at 265 Main Street. A two-story brick Georgian Revival building with a … Read More
Historic Pass-a-Grille, FL, post office to close, believe it or not
The Old Town of Pass-a-Grille is an officially designated historic district located in St. Petersburg Beach, Florida. The district contains 97 buildings, and at its center is Eighth Avenue, a one-block stretch between the gulf and the bay. In the 1940s, Ripley's Believe it or Not deemed Eighth Avenue the smallest main street in America. Pass-a-Grille has had a post … Read More
Horror Story in Lakewood, NJ
The post office in downtown Lakewood, New Jersey, was built by the WPA in 1938. Located at the corner of Clifton Avenue & Main Street, it’s undergone a few changes over the years, like an addition on the north side and renovation of the interior, but for the most part it looks like it did back in 1938. The Asbury … Read More
It all just goes and comes around in Freehold
Freehold, New Jersey, has had a post office since 1795, and it once had a New Deal post office. Built in 1934 by the WPA, it boasted a historic mural of Revolutionary War hero Molly Pitcher, painted in 1936 by Gerald Foster of Westfield. The mural now hangs in the Monmouth County Library, and the post office building now houses the Sheriff’s … Read More