East Brewton post office to face cuts?
Published 11:16 pm Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Notice posted earlier this week that the East Brewton post office branch would cut back on its hours was premature, U.S. Postal Service officials said Tuesday.
No final decision has been made, a spokeswoman said, but the retail office hours remain “under review.” A notice posted at the branch had stated that the post office would remain open for post office boxes but that retail hours would be cut back to one hour per day.
Postal service spokeswoman Debbie Fetterly said the potential for cutbacks remains for all small post offices as the postal service copes with revenue losses.
“All small post offices and branches are under consideration at this time,” Fetterly said. “The Brewton main post office and the (East Brewton) branch are within 1 and 1/2 miles of one another. For any post office to change its retail hours, requires approval from the Alabama district manager; the Southwest area office (Dallas, Texas) and USPS headquarters (Washington D.C.) That has not occurred in this case.”
Fetterly said the public will be given notice if the office changes its hours.
“The retail office hours at the East Brewton Post Office are under review at this time,“ she said. “However, no final determination has been made as to whether or not the hours will change. If the hours are changed, the public will be given a 30-day notice.”
Judy Nall, who is the secretary for Super Foods, said a potential scaleback would cause some inconvenience to the store, but it won’t be a real hardship.
“We will just have to have a bigger stock of stamps and other things,” Nall said. “Customers who can’t buy them at the post office will come to us. It won’t be too bad; we’ll just have to organize a little bit better.”
Cathy McCurdy, who also works at Super Foods, said she worries about the inconvenience cuts would mean to the elderly who already have problems getting to the post office.
“It’s going to be rough to begin with. It will be a hardship on some,” McCurdy said. “There are some services we can help the customer with, such as stamps, but there are many more things that we won’t be able to do. I guess it will just be something we will have to adjust to.”