The U.S. Postal Service is proposing cuts to hours of operation at small rural post offices, including several of Juneau’s neighbors, but that cost saving measure may help buy time for the threatened Douglas Post Office.
Douglas’ post office was targeted for closure last year, but a decision on that office’s future was put off until mid-May.
Now, the Postal Service is proposing cutting window hours at thousands of rural post offices, but the list of offices with potential cuts didn’t include Douglas.
“At this point we don’t know for sure what’s going to happen,” said Luke Miller, press secretary for U.S. Rep. Don Young, who has been monitoring the situation.
Miller said the hope is that means the value of the Douglas office has been recognized, but said it is being considered in a different category from the other rural post offices that had been considered for closure.
Top postal officials in Juneau and Anchorage did not return phone calls from the Empire on Wednesday.
The decision to cut hours at, but not close, less used rural post offices was intended to prevent the loss of small-town mail service, as well as those town’s zip codes and community identity, said a U.S. Postal Service spokesman in Washington, D.C. where the announcement was made.
Postmasters in some small communities around Southeast Alaska said Wednesday that a call from the Empire was the first they’d heard that they’d be reducing their hours.
Chichagof Island was particularly impacted, with post offices in Tenakee Springs, Elfin Cove and Pelican among those seeing hours cut, mostly from 8 hours a day to 6 hours a day.
Alaska U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich issued positive statements about the nationwide action.
“I have always said that I would fight any cut from any government service that hurt Alaska disproportionately — and it appears the USPS is attempting to address its tough financial situation while maintaining full access to postal services,” she said.
Comments (4)
Add commentPostal cut backs
With the post master here on a salary, cutting the hours in our tiny 1 room
post office will only save a miniscule amount on heating oil and electricity.
They can't just shut the heat off when the place is closed, turn it down, yes.
I would suggest just not having it open on Saturday's any more. If some one is
waiting for an important priority mailing, i.e medications, etc, those two hours
could mean the difference in getting your meds and not getting them, what
with the vagaries of air service. We sometimes go weeks during the winter
without a plane. Maybe they should just have a part time post office that is only
open when we know we are going to get a plane. That way the flight service
could just call the postal person and tell them there's plane on the way with a
bunch of mail, see you in an hour!
Shut it down.
There is a post office just across the bridge. Move the employees from Douglas office over there, $$ problem solved.
Post office
And while you are at it shut down the Auke bay post office
too. There are two to many PO's in the Juneau area.
I lived in Juneau, actually North Douglas for nine years,
and I never set foot in the Douglas PO, nor have I ever
been in the Auke Bay PO.
shut down the federal bldg po
and keep douglas open. even bigger savings and better service to boot.