Neither rain, nor sleet, nor gloomy night — instead, technology is turning out to be the U.S. Postal Service”s Achilles” heel.
After losing $8.5 billion last year, the U.S. Postal Service is considering closing 3,653 locations nationwide, including the historic downtown Columbus office, the USPS reported Tuesday.
The office at 524 Main St., which was opened in 1939, is one of 61 offices under review in Mississippi, according to a USPS statement.
Henry Mixon, who has worked at the post office for 29 years, said the Postal Service was “crazy” to even consider closing the office, which has the best cost-to-benefit ratio of the three Columbus locations.
“I have an opinion,” he said of the review, “but as a good Baptist, I don”t want to curse.”
But being put on notice of review doesn”t mean closure is a foregone conclusion.
USPS Southwest Communications Manager Earl Artis said a community meeting would be held “soon” to determine how a closure would affect local customers and employees.
After the review, the Postal Service will determine whether to close the Main Street post office within the next five months, Artis said.
“There”s no way to know the chances (of an office being closed) until after the review,” he said.
If an office is to be closed, residents will be able to appeal to the independent Postal Regulatory Commission.
Pearlie Thomas of Southside said the closure of the office would be a major inconvenience to her. She would instead have to go to either the main office at 3202 Bluecutt Road in north Columbus or the smaller, 235 Alabama St. office in East Columbus.
“I live here. I come here. I”ll have to go way out to Bluecutt or East Columbus,” she said.
Another frequent mailer, Stephanie Grady, said she is in “love” with the easy-to-access location.
“It”s convenient to me,” she said of the office. “I live right next door.”
Mixon, who is the only full-time employee there, and part-time regular employee Earl Arndt both said they were surprised by the news, and had not received a formal notice yet.
Arndt said the Postal Service has recently spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to make structural renovations at the office.
“It make absolutely no sense,” said Arndt, who has worked for USPS 26 years.
In a statement Tuesday, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said the closures were a result of less traffic to the offices. Instead, more than 35 percent of the Postal Service”s retail revenue comes from grocery stores, self-service kiosks, the Internet and other locations.
“Our customer”s habits have made it clear that they no longer require a physical post office to conduct most of their postal business,” he said in the statement.
The Postal Service currently operates 31,871 retail outlets across the country, down from 38,000 a decade ago.
Business has declined sharply as people have made the exodus from first-class mail to the Internet and the recession has hurt advertising mail.
In the past five years, the Postal Service has lost $43 billion in mailing.
“We”re losing a lot of money,” Artis said. “That”s inescapable.”
Most of the offices that face review are in rural areas and have low volumes of business.
The post office 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.
The Mississippi offices are: Arkabutla, Bellefontaine, Columbus (downtown), Dumas, Etta, Gattman, Greenwood Springs, Lake Cormorant, Michigan City, Randolph, Scobey, Tillatoba, Tiplersville, Waterford, Alligator, Beulah, Camden, Jackson (Candlestick Park), Cascilla, Coahoma, Coila, Jackson (Delta Station), Doddsville, Duncan, Dundee, Enid Glendora, Grace, Gunnison, Holly Bluff, Louise, McCarley, North Jackson, Panther Burn, Philipp, Rena Lara, Rome, Satartia, Schlater, Southwest Jackson, Stewart, Union Church, Valley Park, Vance, Jackson (Westland Plaza), Winstonville, Carson, Chatawa, Conehatta, Crosby, Harperville, McCall Creek, Piney Woods, Pulaski, Richland, Sibley, Meridian (West Station), Biloxi (Keesler Air Force Base), Neely, Paulding and Rose Hill.
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