Public meetings are still being held to decide the future of nearly 3,700 post office branches of the United States Postal Service, and local and state officials are trying to save one of them: the South Bethlehem location.
Bethlehem Supervisor Sam Messina and State Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin are explaining their reasons to a federal lawmaker in an attempt to save the local office. They’ve written a letter to Congressman Paul Tonko urging him to fight to keep the location on Bridge Street open.
“These post offices are vital to the fabric of those small communities,” said McLaughlin. “They tend to be pretty isolated.”
The freshman Assemblyman, whose parents both worked for the postal service, believes there are better options to help the agency save money.
“I’d much rather see them go toward no Saturday delivery, and maybe no Tuesday delivery,” said McLaughlin.
In late July, the postal service announced that branches nationwide would be assessed to determine customer needs. An idea for Village Post Offices was also floated. That would transfer the operation of postal services to local businesses, grocery stores, and other retailers, who could provide products like stamps, and services such as flat-rate packaging.
“There are no pre-determined outcomes to these studies that are being undertaken on every one of these offices,” said Tom Rizzo, spokesperson for the United States Postal Service. “We don’t expect that we’ll be closing every post office on that list. All of the customer input and questions will be taken into consideration.”
McLaughlin said there are five post offices under review within his district. Earlier this year, the Postal Service announced the post office in Clarksville would be shuttered after undergoing the review process the South Bethlehem office is now in the midst of.
“This isn’t a lot of bang for the buck,” said McLaughlin. “Really what you are doing is sort of cost shifting, because now you have to get in your car, and burn up gas and time and mileage.”
The nearest branch for many would be the branch on Route 9W in Selkirk.
“You could have people four or five miles away who can’t travel to another post office,” said Messina, who also raised the issue of the post office being something of a gathering place for residents in the area.
“We need to recognize that being a community gathering place is not our constitutional role,” said Rizzo. “The reality is that, with a $10 billion annual loss this year and continued losses projected as the public uses less hard copy mail, we cannot afford to keep offices open just for this purpose.
McLaughlin pointed out that the biggest impact of a post office branch closure may be felt by seniors.
“You may be getting medication delivered to that post office, and if you now need to drive seven or eight miles to get to the other post office, and it’s a February day and it’s –10 degrees and might be icy, it’s really dangerous,” said McLaughlin.
The assemblyman credited postal service officials with being proactive and available to the public to answer questions. A public meeting on the future of the South Bethlehem office was held in October. Messina came away with the idea that there were options available other than closing offices.
“The sense I got from the operational people I was talking to, they were almost begging that the policy makers and federal legislators look at options for service delivery, and not just cut what is there.”
Rizzo said a notice proposing the closure of the South Bethlehem post office will be up at the facility until Nov. 17. After that, a final determination would be made. Customers would then have a 30-day period to file an appeal if a decision to close is made.
