The convenience of the local post office may be a thing of the past for some Schenectady County residents.
The U.S. Postal Service is conducting a study to see if two of its branches, the Scotia branch located at 224 Mohawk Ave. and the branch located at the Rotterdam Square Mall, can sustain themselves before services are consolidated and moved to the central Schenectady Branch and the Glenville branch.
This doesn’t sit well with some postal patrons.
I didn’t move to Scotia to have to go to Schenectady to have to get the mail, said Ken McIver.
He said he enjoys the convenience of the post office’s location. `I live on Houston Street and I can walk down [to the Scotia branch],` said McIver. `In downtown Schenectady, it’s adjacent to City Hall,` he said. `It’s a trek.`
Maureen Marion, public affairs specialist for the U.S. Postal Service for Upstate New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts, said the consolidation of the Scotia and Rotterdam branches is part Postal Service’s efforts to consolidate operations nationwide.
`Nationwide, we’re looking at the largest post offices ` that includes regions in Albany and Schenectady – that have subordinate offices known as stations or branches,` said Marion.
These branches include those in the Rotterdam Square Mall and Scotia. She described Schenectady’s main post office as a `parent,` and the Rotterdam and Scotia branches as its `children.`
`When we look at that relationship and some of our largest offices, we’re looking to see if we have options to consolidate services, but still provide exceptional service,` said Marion.
She said that USPS is conducting studies and examining aspects such as proximity to other services, demographics, how much building leases cost, if they own the building if someone is looking to buy it, if there’s vacant space in their buildings and more.
`We anticipate that we will have offices perhaps identified for final consideration possibly as soon as the next month or so,` said Marion, however their study will not be complete until after their public input period, which they are still arranging.
Nationwide, USPS plans to collect a written survey, and to hold meetings with the public and public officials.
`We know that we’ll be looking ahead to something and we’ll definitely need some kind of survey or questionnaire because we do believe that we have an awful lot of folks [who want to have their say],` said Marion.
`Numbers don’t tell the whole story. We do need community input. We’re waiting on the public’s communication before we put a strong business case on paper,` said Marion.
The study was started with about 3,000 post offices nationwide. In the Capital Region there were about five post offices under study in Albany in addition to the ones in Rotterdam and the other in Scotia.
Marion said that it’s hard to say exactly how many post offices are under study because one office may have been looked at for `15 seconds` before USPS realized that they couldn’t include it in their consolidation efforts.
`If I had an opportunity I would stress that it’s a study. I would stress that it does factor into anther phase of how we’re looking at how the postal service does business,` said Marion.
`People are becoming aware now that there are changes in technology and changes in the way people use the mail. The changes are revenue ` I think people are still surprised when they find out that the USPS has a tremendous amount of government oversight but no tax dollar support,` said Marion.
She said there will be changes in the near future.
`It’s a very fluid process,` said Marion.
Those changes are already being seen in Scotia.
`I can give you a little history within the last two months,` said Kris Kastberg, Mayor of the Village of Scotia.
`The post office has gone down to a one-person staffing at the Scotia Post Office,` said Kastberg.
He said that as a result, the post office is open for fewer hours and closes each business day for an hour at lunch because its one employee needs to take a break.
`They removed the drop boxes that are throughout the village. By doing that they can eliminate one employee, so when those things happened it became obvious to me that something was going on,` said Kastberg.
`It doesn’t take much to read the writing on the wall that they are definitely looking at the Scotia Post Office. It’s a serious thing in the village because our village is a walking community,` said Kastberg, who is strongly opposed to the Scotia branch of the post office closing.
He said that in the village there are two homes for the elderly as well as several apartments where people who don’t drive live. He said that there are many residents who are only able to walk to the Scotia post office. If it closes, their next two options are in Glenville and Schenectady, neither of which are in walking-distance.
`I understand it’s a building and a service. It’s also part of the culture of the area here. To lose the Scotia post office is a big deal,` said Kastberg.
He added that Scotia is the most densely populated area of the Town of Glenville.
`To pull this post office out of the most densely populated part of the town doesn’t make sense to me,` said Kastberg.
`Even if it were scaled back as a place to drop off your mail and purchase stamps I think a presence in the village is critical,` said Kastberg.
Rotterdam Town Supervisor Steve Tommasone said the town was not formally informed by the Postal Service that one of the town’s post offices was included in the study. He said he’s confident that once the studies are complete they’ll realize that the Rotterdam Square Mall branch is needed.
`I’m very hopeful that they’ll keep it open, or even expand it,` said Tommasone.
For updates on this story, check back to future print editions of the Schenectady County editions of The Spotlight or visit www.spotlightnews.com.
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