There’s a moratorium on closing post offices until May 15, but it doesn’t apply to “emergency suspensions,” as we learned at a meeting of the Postal Regulatory Commission earlier this week. That means any post office with a lease expiring soon is in danger, and there are 1,400 of them with leases that end during the moratorium. A list is … Read More
Mystery in “Love Valley”: Emergency Suspension in Liebenthal, KS
Liebenthal, Kansas, was founded in 1876 by immigrants from the Ukraine. Named for Liebenthal (“love valley”), Russia, the settlement received a post office on November 28, 1899. According to the Hays Daily News, this week a sign appeared on the door of the Liebenthal Post Office, telling customers the post office was closed and to pick up their mail in … 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
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