Their services would be limited, however, to sales of stamps and flat-rate packages and mailbox rentals where there is a demand. The Postal Service says it is those basic services that are used by nearly 85 percent of customers. The “Village” sites would not dispense passports, money orders, certified receipts or priority envelopes and would not weigh odd-sized Christmas boxes.
“It’s a really nice option in terms of access and convenience,” Donahoe said of the new model, calling the added postal revenue a lifeline for struggling small businesses. “Many general stores are hanging on for dear life out there.”
The announcement quickly began to trigger a battle with local communities, postal unions and members of Congress, who despite pledges to overhaul the mail service have resisted closings.
Community opposition
At the Suitland post office on Tuesday, a steady stream of customers on line were angry to learn their post office is on the list.
“It’s unacceptable,” said Norman Thorpe, who runs a business out of his home. “I’ve been coming her about three times a week for 30 years. It’s busy all the time, so I don’t know why they’re closing.”
Chevy Chase residents lamented the potential loss of their community gathering place. “It’s part of the culture of the town,” said Stephanie Grill, who lives a half-mile away and checks her mailbox there two to three times a week.
The post office sits in a quaint stucco community center, surrounded by shady trees and houses. “It has a small-town kind of feel,” Grill said.
Although some candidates for closure are around the corner from other post offices — one in downtown Silver Spring is a short walk from the main branch — those in rural areas are different. In many towns, the post office is a focal point, and closing it would necessitate traveling long stretches to another site.
“While there are some areas where postal services could be consolidated . . . this simply is not an option in many rural and remote areas,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the top Republican on the committee that oversees the Postal Service, said in a statement. More than 30 post offices in her state are on the list, including one on a remote island that gets deliveries five days a week.
The only state spared is Delaware, with 70 post offices, the smallest number in the country. There are five bills pending in Congress to overhaul the Postal Service, and Donohoe has endorsed the one introduced by Sen. Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.)
Postal officials said the state’s exclusion from the list is not due to favoritism but to the state’s high population ratio to post offices: 12,000 people per post office, compared with one for every 2,000 people in North Dakota, where 76 of 324 post offices would close.
The new system will involve community meetings to look for alternatives, after which local groups will have 60 days to appeal closures to the Postal Regulatory Commission. But the Postal Service is not bound by the commission’s review.
A long line of cuts
The Postal Service has slashed billions of dollars in costs in recent years, reducing its workforce by 130,000 employees. The agency has maxed out a $15 billion line of credit with the federal government and is hamstrung by an annual $5.5 billion payment into a fund set aside for health benefits for retirees. Several bills pending in Congress would alleviate some of the financial problems, but an effort to switch to five- from six-day delivery has gone nowhere.
“Cutting service and closing post offices is not the answer to the [Postal Service’s] financial crisis,” said Sally Davidow, a spokeswoman for the American Postal Workers Union, which represents 220,000 employees and retirees. Instead, Congress must allow the Postal Service to tap into surpluses in its retiree benefits funds, she said.
Staff reporters Sarah Khan, Jillian Sowah and Larissa Roso contributed to this story.
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