The U.S. Postal Service conducted informational meetings in two small Sullivan County towns Wednesday, discussing its POST Plan for reducing hours at those branch locations.
Merom will likely see its weekday business hours reduced to four, while Graysville will drop back to two, no later than Jan. 10. Currently, daily business hours in Merom and Graysville are eight and four, respectively.
The proposed new Mon.-Fri. hours in Merom are expected to be 8 a.m.-noon, and either 7:30-9:30 a.m. or 8-10 a.m. in Graysville.
“Originally, the thought was to close a lot of rural post offices,” Acting Post Office Operations Manager Rick Minton said. “But based on customer input, the post office decided to kind of change direction a little bit. Still retain the post offices in these communities, but reduce the hours based on workload.
“Basically, what came out of the POST Plan, essentially you have offices that could be rated at 2-, 4- or 6-hour offices, based on workload, based on revenue and based on PO box rentals.”
Just under 10 people attended each of the sessions, and nobody expressed any major disagreement with the proposed changes.
The USPS’s decisions were based on posting information at these offices and customer surveys.
In Merom, 280 surveys were mailed out, with 65 being returned. An overwhelming 94 percent of respondees said they were pleased with realignment of hours. In Graysville, only two of 29 were returned, both in favor of reducing hours.
Minton stressed that Saturday window service hours, nor access to PO Boxes or mail collection boxes will change — even hinting the Merom branch is being considered for 24-hour lobby access to PO boxes.
“Maintenance modifications for security purposes have already been completed (at Merom),” Minton said.
The implementation could be sooner than Jan. 10.
“Since these (branches) have a city postmaster, changes would go into effect within 30 days of a vacancy, if they retire or take another position with the post office,” Minton explained.
Sullivan Postmaster David Wright will assume responsibility for both of these branches on or before Jan. 10.
Minton said all post offices will be evaluated on a yearly basis, but emphasized there are no plans to close any branches. He said daily open hours could increase in the future, but would not go below two hours.
“The best advice to get the hours increased is to utilize the post office,” Minton noted. “The post offices will be evaluated yearly based on revenue.”
Minton also encouraged the towns to join the Village Post Office system, implemented in 2011. VPOs are located in local retailers, libraries, town halls or government centers, and are run by the proprietor or respective management.
Only one VPO is currently in Sullivan County, at the Shelburn IGA. The other was at Smith’s Hardware, in Dugger, but the business closed recently.
The USPS previously hosted POST Plan meetings in late 2012 at Hymera, Shelburn and Dugger. Daily branch hours were later reduced to four in Hymera, effective in Feb. 2013, and to six in Dugger and Shelburn, effective in March 2013.
A similar meeting occurred in nearby Fairbanks in mid-2013, resulting in its daily open hours reduced to two, effective in Oct. 2013.
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