SIX AREA POST OFFICE SLATED TO CLOSE

Mike,

The bottom line is that rural areas are experiencing the loss of what little government benefit they once enjoyed -- both in terms of employment and services.

The hospital problem is not unrelated as private insurance is as rare as the jobs that create it.

Very interesting article about the death of the rural US post office that is slowly fading away with all the closings happening all over the US

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/08/business/in-rural-america-fears-that-beloved-post-offices-will-close.html

Pony Express anyone?

Interesting article in the NY Times about this issue. The post office is dying quicker than I thought. Can you spell disaster?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/05/business/in-internet-age-postal-service-struggles-to-stay-solvent-and-relevant.html

Hi Mike,

Those e-cards are great on the CVSID website. It was a clever thought on their part. Good promotion. Mailed a package today. Went to the Post Office and stood in line and talked to people. To me it's all humanizing. Call me old fashion. A love letter you can hold and return to will always beat a text. The kids don't even know what they're missing.

Paul, there will still be a US Postal Service. It will just be used much less than we used to use it. Fact is we aren't using it for much anymore except junk mail and mailing packages and the "pay bills by mail" holdouts and they are fading fast. You are making my argument valid. I never said the post office is going away, what I have said is we will need fewer and fewer physical locations, and in the Quad Cities, right now in 2011 there is zero need for 3 locations. This area would do fine with one location and my guess is that it will be the one in Ash Flat. Hardy and CV will get axed eventually. So you would go to Ash Flat to mail the occasional package. Or maybe they will close all three and put a bigger more modern one centrally located in Highland. Nevertheless, there is no need going forward of three post offices in this area. With the rapidly changing habits of people and younger generations dictating how it will work based on what they are doing now, the postal service as we know it from years past is dead. By the way, I would bet it would be very hard to find one person out of ten under the age of 18 who has ever mailed out a postcard or physically wrote a letter and mailed it. They don't even use email. They think email is for "old people with jobs". They text. Case in point, the many high school students I know use email only for school related business. They look at email nowadays as a work related activity. Socially, it is text or facebook messages and facebook private messages. They don't use the post office and won't, and they are going to be in charge in just a few years. That's the cold hard reality.

Hey, if you want a postcard, check this out:

http://cvsid.org/greetingcard.php

It's free and it's faster than the post office could ever be!

Hi Mike,

You make many valid points to be sure. I'm a big fan of paying bills electronically. There is certainly much a person can do online now -- even get postage. There remains one fact however. People need to ship and receive physical objects. My experience has been that the US Post Office remains cheaper and more reliable than UPS,Fed Ex etc. It also offers more options in terms of rates. And I still like to get a postcard -- especially if it is CV.

I think the post office is doing the wrong thing if it still wants to be relevant. If it wants to be relevant, it would add Sunday delivery and not think of getting rid of Saturday. The less they go back, the more we don't need them anymore.

"We rely on our post offices in a way different from people in suburban and urban areas," Emerson stated."

Wrong. That statement is nothing more than politicking and lobbying. It is simply not true. Rural people are using online bill pay the same rate as urban people and that includes the elderly. That's a fact. I for example, buy very few stamps anymore compared to just 5 years ago. I pay almost every bill online now and will never go back. Same with my home phone. Nobody calls it anymore except junk calls. Fact is, the postal service is in big trouble as we just don't need them as much as we used to. I haven't been to a counter person in two years is my guess. If I need stamps, I use a kiosk if available. It's faster. I see the day soon when in one month's time I will have not mailed one thing that pertains to paying bills. Email has taken the place of letters and online bill pay has taken over for mailing out your bills. It's simply faster, better, cheaper. The post office is going to look very different in 10 yrs and probably only one location in northern Sharp County, probably just in Hardy or Ash Flat but both are not needed. As much as CV post office is nice and quaint, it is right now irrelevant sad to say. CV's post office will be gone in 5 yrs is my guess and out of the Quad Cities there will only be one physical location because three are not needed. Not trying to sound hard and cold, just stating the obvious and what is going to happen. The post office cannot change people's new habits and they know it. The younger generation now thinks email is old fashioned, watches just about zero network television, and they get their news from Digg and other news websites and do not read newspapers. The younger generations have no need for the postal system as we know it, and once they become adults, it's over folks. The post office is no different. It is dying rapidly. Not sad, just a normal transition as every generation since time began throws functions, businesses, ways of doing things etc to the junk pile. The post office will be added to that pile someday.

Making "government smaller" sometimes means a person you go to church with or your friend is now unemployed.

Hi Forum,

Any comments on the following closures? Cut, cut cut ='s Close, close, close...

From Villager Journal:

Six area post offices on new closure list

Thursday, August 4, 2011
Richard Irby & Linda Greer, Staff Writers
Richard Irby & Linda Greer
Staff Writers

"I can't imagine Sturkie without the Sturkie Post office," resident Joe York said recently.

York and many others have been lamenting the news that seven more Fulton County area post offices have been added to the list of rural post offices the U.S. Postal Service believes should be closed.

The Postal Service released its Expanded Study List of endangered post offices on Tuesday, July 26.

So far, none of Oregon County's four post offices (Alton, Thayer, Koshkonong and Myrtle) are on the study list. Neighboring Brandsville, Moody and Pottersville in Howell County were on an earlier list and being studied for closure.

In June, the Postal Service held a town hall meeting in Brandsville, attended by more than 50 residents, many who spoke to oppose the proposed closing in the town of 174 residents.

Statewide, 167 post offices are on the new list, including Eminence in Shannon County.

In Arkansas, post offices in Sturkie, Camp, Elizabeth, Wiseman, Guion, Dolph, Sidney and Ravenden Springs are on the new list to be studied for closure.

Losing business

As the Postal Service tries to stem losses that reached $8.5 billion last year, it is looking at closing 3,700 post offices that take in less than $27,500 a year and have limited customer traffic.

Much of the loss can be attributed to more Americans shopping and paying bills online, communicating via email and the Internet and less junk mail due to the economy.

The day after the Postal Service released the new list, U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo., issued a statement emphasizing the importance of post offices in rural communities.

"We rely on our post offices in a way different from people in suburban and urban areas," Emerson stated.

Emerson said the Postal Service needs to fix its business model without resorting to closing small offices or ending Saturday delivery, which, if approved, would create nine three-day mail interruptions due to federal holidays.

"The combination of these two strategies mean that Americans in rural communities, especially senior citizens and disabled individuals, will have to travel great distances to get their mail," Emerson said. "Bills, checks, medicines and cards from loved ones are some of the most important materials to travel regularly through our postal system."

Emerson said cut-backs would have the most serious ramifications in rural areas, which represent less than one percent of the Postal Service's cost of doing business.

Arkansas

Last spring, the Postal Service identified a smaller list of post offices it hoped to close, including Gepp, Pineville and Wideman in the Salem, Ark., area.

Citizens in Gepp and Pineville are still trying to convince the Postal Service their offices should remain open. While it appears the Widema post office will close, a date has yet to be set for it to cease operations.

"Some people in Sturkie have talked about organizing to try to save the post office, but they don't know if it will do any good," York said.

York may have stronger feelings than most about the Sturkie Post office, since his mother, Lela Fay, ran it for more than 40 years.

"It was definitely a big part of our lives," said York, since, for many years, the post office was in the general store his family ran on Sturkie Road. York's brother, Stan, built and owns the current post office building, behind the old store location.

Lisa Toliver-Gaye, the Customer Service Coordinator for the Arkansas district, said the process of studying the new closure list will take several months.

A study will gather data to confirm each post office generates little revenue and serves a small number of customers. The data will be sent to the southwest regional office and postal headquarters for review. If the closure recommendation is upheld, a community meeting will be held for each post office to gauge public reaction and a decision will be made.

According to Toliver-Gaye, if a final decision is made to close a post office, citizens will still have the right to file an appeal.

If rural post offices are closed, home delivery service will continue. But, customers will have to travel to another post office in the area for post office boxes or to mail packages or buy stamps.

If rural post offices in north central Arkansas are closed, their customers will be served by larger postal stations at Salem, Viola, Melbourne, Calico Rock and Mountain Home.

Those who now use the Brandsville Post Office will get their mail from the West Plains Post Office, 12 miles north, or can mail items from Koshkonong, seven miles south.

New way to operate

"It's no secret that the postal service is looking to change the way we do a lot of things, and it's driven by a large part by what makes sense financially and what makes sense for our customers and the communities that we support," said Postmaster Patrick Donahue, in releasing the Expanded Access Study List.

In some communities where post offices will be closed, the Postal Service will maintain a presence through what it calls the Village Post Office. It is a self-service machine, similar to an ATM, which would sell stamps and accept some flat-rate packages for mailing. The Village Post Office machines could be placed in local businesses, such as grocery stores and pharmacies.

According to the Postal Service, 35 percent of its retail revenue already comes from stamps and other products it sells in retail chains, grocery stores and office supply stores. Its usps.com online store, which offers 24/7 service, is also growing in popularity.

As if to say "get used to fewer post offices," Postmaster Donahue added, "Our customer's habits have made it clear that they no longer require a physical post office to conduct most of their postal business."

With the new list of possible closures, more than 179 post offices in Arkansas and 167 in Missouri are being studied for closure.

Nationwide, more than 3,700 post offices are on the chopping block, which is more than 10 percent of the 32,000 retail offices it currently operates.

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