But what services would the area lose if it did close? And who or what would have to pick up the slack?

If I'd had to go to the nearest neighboring larger town to get my mail, it would have been a 40 mile roundtrip drive. Mail would have been an expensive twice a week chore, if that happened.

Moreso in winter, no?

Weather could cause delays anyway, so some mail would take a week or more to end it's journey to the recipient. Also, tax forms would have to be obtained some other way?

Feel bad for any rural area that loses theirs--what a terrible inconvenience.

things becomes a huge-ass pain.

but closure called off.

Lots of locals complained, would have been a hardship, esp. on the older folks, although, USPS was going to set us up with good boxes, and they do sell postage at your door. Provide good services.

Simply wouldn't have a central place to go to in our rural valley to send packages, buy supplies, or have PO boxes. Mail would be delivered at new postal box banks at the bottom of rural roads.

Do rural carriers deliver mail to most homes?
Are there many places where carriers do not deliver?

How often do users need to make a trip to the Post Office and why?

What is the criteria they are trying to use to reduce Post Offices?
Do they try to use a population factor?

Is this out in the boonies or are there several incorporated communities in the area?

and receive mail and packages in a PO box. There was no delivery in the smallest town (pop.500) and limited delivery in our larger town (pop. 1000)--I wasn't on the home delivery route, unfortunately. Edit to add: both areas would be considered "boonies".

The closest US Post Office to my house is about six miles away. It's always packed with people. Long lines and the surly service that people have come to expect from the USPS.

What would happen if that Post Office was closed?

What would change?

How would people adjust?

Rural DUers where there is only one Post office for many miles. Please talk to us.

That happened to me. There used to be a US Post Office reasonably close, about four miles, but it closed about a year ago. I always dreaded going there because of the long lines, terrible attitude of some of the employees, and the unusually large percentage of customers who are unpleasant or just plain crazy.

The solution is the free enterprise system, which has given rise to numerous storefront mailing service businesses. Some are part of a chain, e.g. UPS Stores, many others are standalone, privately owned businesses. There is one such place about 2 miles from my house, and I do nearly all of my mailing business there.

You pay a small premium over what the USPS charges, but there is rarely a line and service is always friendly. The proprietor happens to be an old friend of mine. His business provides nearly everything the USPS does including certified mail and P.O. boxes. He has a great selection of envelopes, boxes, etc. He also provides computer services, printing, passport photos, copying, and other services.

http://expresspbc.com/

Meet Brady Mahaney.

The one in walking distance is the Enola post office. The next one closest is Camp Hill. They can't really close either. Mechanicsburg isn't large enough to cover the territory (two zip codes as it is). But hey, when you can walk into the post office and they know you by name, that feels rural. The Mechanicsburg POs are about 10 miles away. Yeah, it isn't really rural. But it's small-town in nature. I like that. We walk into a bar and the bartenders all have ice water ready for us and a bowl of water for my service dog. The quickest way to the other side of Harrisburg is right through the center of town and past the capital building onto the State Street Bridge - even in what they call "rush hour" around here. That means four cars backed up at a stop light.

When the PO adjacent to your PO is like 40 miles away, then you are on-topic. No offense. This thread is about small, isolated country communities. Didja see TwilightGardener's post? Think about that sitch.

Your area sounds nice. I've never been to PA but I always get this mental image of fall tree foliage.

The PO's literally WERE 40 miles or more away from each other, but generally within the town limits. The rural delivery trucks took a beating. By the way, did you know that the "moon buggy" delivery trucks are sitting on a Chevy S-10 base? They're aging and need to be replaced, but I only recently found that out (talking to a PO delivery man at a bar). DAMN those things have some mileage on them. Many of them are up over 300K!!!

As for the foliage, I don't expect much this year. We didn't even have a "winter" as far as I'm concerned. I have annuals from last season that are still in full bloom. Everything is off. It's fucking mid-September and 80 degrees outside. I used to be worried about frost about now. No sign of it in the near future. The nightshades are all acting like it's July. You don't get good colors without a solid frost in early September. They'll just go brown this year. The maples already went through a false fall and are back to full green.

But hey, global warming is a myth, right?

I'm actually hard pressed to think of the last bit of mail I got that I didn't chuck into the recycling bin. I think I got something from my insurance company, but it was the same thing I got from them in a .pdf and I didn't feel compelled to save a paper copy.

So much is done electronically now. The vast majority of my bills are paid over the internet. Even documents that I once had to sign with wet ink and return originals are now done online. If we refinance or modify our loan for whatever reason, the title company takes care of delivery of documents. Or we just go into the bank and sign in person. They're a block away from each other so it's not really an issue.

Most companies that ship things to us do so through UPS or FedX. UPS doesn't come out here but they hire private contractors to drive it. It's usually a neighbor on their way home, they stop by with my box from amazon.com or wherever and we chat for a few minutes.

The lack of a post office would affect the elderly and the poor the most. Younger people with an internet connection are usually savvy enough to obviate the need for most mail. But people who can't afford or don't really understand the internet will obviously be affected. Same with people who like holiday cards for some reason.

That and PO boxes. They're real popular out here, though I don't see the appeal. Without a post office all those go away. People who like to have one will be upset.

Last edited Fri Sep 14, 2012, 12:37 PM - Edit history (1)

lived on RR 1, Cazenovia, Wisconsin, seven miles from the nearest post office. Back when I had no car, no running water, and no huge backpack (now I have a pack that can hold a 40 pound bag of dog food, or other sundries, back then my backpack was full with just about a gallon of milk - it is much easier to carry forty pounds on your back, than in your arms).

Once my mom sent a care package to me, in December and the Post Office would not deliver it. So I walked to Caz to pick it up and buy groceries. It was a big box and I bought a fair amount of groceries - including a gallon of milk and a ten pound box of pasta. So there I am, trudging home with this big, heavy box, with a gallon of milk in my backpack. I can only walk about a quarter of a mile before I have to stop for ten minutes and rest my arms.

I had made it about a mile past Germantown, which meant I had gone about two miles of my seven mile walk. Then a driver stopped to see if I needed help. May have been the first car I had seen that day. It was an insurance guy from Plain. He gave me a ride, even though he was going the other way. Took him ten miles out of his way, saved me about five hours of walking.

From where I lived, the next nearest post offices, other than Caz, were probably Richland Center (16 miles) or LaValle (14 miles, but much hillier route). Perhaps Lime Ridge and Hillsboro would be close as well, about 15-20 miles with some backtracking and hilly, winding roads. (It is known as the "driftless region" because the Ice Age passed it by. Withoug glaciers to scour and flatten the landslide, there is more erosion than other regions - meaning there are some deep valleys and serious hills.)

I did walk once from Richland Center to my property, and biked it many times, even with my old Huffy ten speed, but a round trip would probably not be possible in one day - not on foot carrying groceries.

But only a few oddballs, or really poor people, do not have cars. The main loss from closing the Post Office in Cazenovia, if it is even on the chopping block, would be the loss of probably 3 or 4 good paying jobs in that small town, and then the loss to the community of $90,000 - $120,000 (or more) of income. I am not sure how the little grocery stores in Cazenovia and Germantown stayed open anyway. Although some farm neighbors were saying that the guy in Germantown had taken some big vacation trip. There was also another gas station convenience store that opened up in the 12 years I was in the area. So there was some growth. Losing some good jobs, and losing services would not help though.

Quite the hike. Not one I'd want to take in cold or wet weather, but I'm a soft city boy.

I do see rural POs as being a sort of stake or support helping to form the foundation of very rural communities. That is a theory, though, one I was hoping to prove or dispel with this thread. Thanks for your post.

The US Postal Service and the Census Bureau are the two agencies met with the most ire by the Tea Party who like to espouse their love of the document. Freakin' hypocrites.

We used to have a post office box because we are in a historical area where lots of tourists go through. We bit the bullet and now have the mail delivered to the end of the drive in a standard box. I buy stamps at Costco now because it can be fit into my errand running schedule. If we need to mail bills, my husband takes them into town and mails them from a post office rather than letting checks lie in an unattended box. I don't order much to require shipping and usually packages are delivered by either UPS or Fedex.

It is inconvenient and losing that post office was painful for our little village. It was the one place you could run into people and catch up.

in NE MN that had a po in a home where you could pick up your mail, buy stamps, mail items. We lived 30 miles for the next nearest po. I did not even know where the local po was located because I had my mail delivered from the main po, asked the delivery man to bring my stamps and mailed big items when I went into town to shop. There is some reasons for closing some of these small pos.

a town whose post office closed 20 years ago! The post office that delivers our mail is eight miles away. The nearest post office is 1.5 miles away, but they are in a different county than we live in as we are on the border. That post office was on the list to be closed.

All of my bills are paid electronically. I rarely send packages. If I need stamps, or other services, I will drive to the post office that is eight miles away if the other one that is closer does close.

Not! They mail would be delivered right to the house. I buy my stamps at the bank. If I had a package delivered, I had to take off work early because the PO is closed by the time I get home. I was actually hoping that they would close our office, but they fought for it and it remained open.

I love our little PO. The people who work there are so nice, and helpful.

I'd be brokenhearted if it closed.

And if it closed, I'd probably only pick up my mail once every week to 10 days.