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Four Luzerne County post offices are on a list of branches to be reviewed for possible closure or consolidation that was issued last week by the U.S. Postal Service, but that doesn’t mean their fates are sealed.
That’s the point Postal Service officials are trying to make days after they released a list of nearly 3,700 post offices to be studied for performance and potential closure.
The branches are mostly in rural areas but some are in larger cities including Philadelphia, New York and Chicago. Locally, they include the Rock Glen and Weston post offices, the only two situated in Black Creek Township; Beach Haven, Salem Township and the one in Cambra, Huntington Township.
Post offices in every state but Delaware are on the list, but Postal Service officials repeatedly said that inclusion on the list is not a guarantee that a post office will close.
And past actions resulting following the release of previous lists bear that out.
Raymond Daiutolo Sr., a regional Postal Service spokesman, noted that the postal service announced in January it was reviewing 1,400 offices for closing. So far 280 have been closed and 200 have finished the review process and will remain open. Of the remainder, 620 are still in the review process and 300 will move to the new review list.”
Daiutolo said the latest list was generated “using some very sophisticated criteria” including sales, foot traffic, location and proximity to other post offices. The list was sent to district officials who are now tasked with conducting a more thorough study on each of the branches.
“That’s where the ball is,” Daiutolo said.
He said customers served by the branches that are on the review list will be asked for input throughout the entire process. He said questionnaires will be left in the branches and public hearings will take place.
“We did this to make sure these stations and branches are given the same level of transparency a standalone office gets,” Daiutolo said.
Even after a site is selected for closure, there’s still a chance for an appeal to the Postal Regulatory Committee before any closing would take place, he added.
“At the earliest, with all the timelines we’re working with, none of these branches would close before December,” he said. The list released Tuesday, which contains the names of 203 Pennsylvania locations, is the third grouping of postal retail facilities facing possible closure issued since 2009. From the 2009 list of about 3,600, 140 eventually closed, Daiutolo said. Among them were two locally, Ashley and Dickson City.
If post offices are slated to close, the postal service said residents will still receive mail and be able to purchase stamps locally. In communities without a post office, the Postal Service plans to sell stamps and offer services through local retailers such as grocers, convenience stores or other popular gathering places.
Residents in Luzerne County that have P.O. boxes at the four post offices under review, would be changed to home delivery of mail and would likely see their zip codes replaced by ones from nearby Columbia County communities such as Bloomsburg, Stillwater, Benton or Berwick.
Bonnie Adams, a Black Creek Township supervisor and a box holder at the Rock Glen Post Office, said residents need to speak out and organize petition drives or campaigns to save their post office. The four post offices on the list located in Luzerne County serve only a few hundred people; Cambra has 35 P.O. boxes.
The Postal Service, solely supported by postage revenue, has seen its funding stream on the decline as technology has allowed people to communicate through email, social networking and text messages. The service is looking at the restructuring as a way to stave off a reported record deficit of up to $9 billion this year.