25 people attended a hearing by the Postal Service regarding the future of the Sheridan Post Office. Recently, the Post Office sent out surveys regarding the future of the Post Office. Of the 91 who responded, 86 favored realignment of hours, one favored switching to rural routes, one favored switching to a village post office operated by a local business, and three did not make a selection. After reviewing the surveys that were returned and taking into account operational needs, retail hours are tentatively set for 9:00 to 4:00 weekdays with lunch from 12-1. Saturday hours would remain unchanged with hours from 7:30 to 9:30. Access to delivery receptacles will not change.
Taren Reynolds, an area manager for the Postal Service, presented the plan at a hearing Monday. He said that the Postal Service was continuing to face serious financial challenges and that the proposed savings under the plan would be $1 billion. He said that the Postal Service had already eliminated layers of management and frozen all management salaries. Previously, the Postal Service had targeted numerous smaller post offices, including Parnell, Allendale, Denver, Worth, and Gentry for closure before bowing to public pressure.
Now, the new plan will reduce the hours at thousands of post offices around the country, including Sheridan's. The Sheridan Post Office and other six-hour facilities would be staffed by a part-time postal service employee while facilities that will be open for 2 or 4 hours would be staffed by a "postmaster relief." Around 13,000 post offices around the country would be impacted. The determination whether to make post offices a 2, 4, or a 6 hour facility was done at headquarters.
The six hours is not written in stone. Each Post Office would be reevaluated annually to determine whether the hours should change; for instance, if Sheridan goes to six hours but the business picks up at the Sheridan Post Office, they could decide to switch back to eight hours next year. Reynolds said that the best way to keep the doors open was to use the local Post Office as much as possible to buy stamps. One of the problems is structural; the rise of email means that the Post Office has lost business that it will never get back since it is free to send and receive email. The local post office would get credit from rural carrier sales since the rural carrier buys stamps from the local post office to serve customers. Another way would be to get a local post office box, for which the local office would get credit.
However, there are no guarantees even if Sheridan gets more business. Reynolds said that there were more changes coming down the pipe after the current round of reductions in postal hours.And even a reduction of hours would have an impact on business; for instance, Sterling Hopkins of MFA said that it would be more difficult to manage operations since customers expect their checks promptly and they have to deal with a large volume of mail every day. And the worry is that the mail will be delivered later in the day given the shorter hours, which will shorten the turnaround time for urgent mail. The Post Office does not guarantee a delivery time for mail.
Nothing has been written in stone regarding the future of the Sheridan Post Office or even when the changes will be implemented. The Postal Service will take all public comments into account and then make a decision.
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