Return to Sender: Community discusses possible Elmo Post Office closure
Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local.
You are now reading
1 of 3 free articles.
ELMO — In many small communities, the post office not only distributes the mail but also serves as a meeting place for people and a hub for information on community events.
In Elmo that’s the case, and when residents learned the United States Post Office was considering closing the Elmo branch about 50 of them came to a meeting at the Elmo Community Center on Aug. 31.
Ken Bates, Helena Postmaster, told the audience the reason he and Shawna Gilroy, Polson Postmaster, were at the meeting was because the Postmaster General and his staff needed to save money to keep the United States Post Office afloat. Money-saving ideas include doing away with Saturday service, putting money into future benefits and closing offices that are losing money and are no longer needed, Bates explained.
“Basically, what it comes down to is the Post Office is running out of money,” Bates said. “The only funds we get to operate on is the money we get from selling stamps and packages.”
The USPO lost close to $7 billion last year and announced in July it is considering closing 10 percent of its retail outlets and planned to study 3,753 local offices, branches and stations. One branch is the post office in Elmo. The USPO’s business is down 20 percent, also.
Bates opened the meeting to questions and comments. Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Council member Terry Pitts asked if the Elmo Post Office’s revenue was less than Dayton and Big Arm and also wanted to know how the branches rate-out. Gilroy explained that Dayton is a level 13 post office while Elmo is a level 11, the smaller the number the smaller the revenue.
Revenue is not the only issue with rural post offices, however. Many are the only building in town. Bates mentioned a small post office where a postal inspector came to visit and found the postmaster babysitting.
It was a medical emergency so the postmaster looked after the kids while the parents drove to the hospital. In a storm, the post office is open and people can get out of the weather.
The loss of the post office would impact the elderly, and the handicapped in a bad economy, Pitts said. He added that it’s not comfortable for Elders to attend meetings and fill out packets.
“The voice of the tribe is speaking for all the tribal members here,” Pitts said.
All those issues are being taken into consideration, Bates said. If the Elmo Post Office is closed, customers would keep their same address and P.O. box and the USPO would either put up cluster boxes or, if a customer was on the line of travel for the mail carrier, a curb side box and package label could be printed online.
Although local resident Jim Schultz noted not everybody has a computer. A show of hands indicated about half the room had access to the Internet.
Schultz also said the surveys sent by the post office were supposed to be already submitted although postal customers only received them last week.
Bates apologized for this lateness and said the surveys are important.
Senator Tester’s field representative Virginia Sloan commented that rural post offices are not the same as urban post offices.
She advised audience members to contact their senators and representative and complete the surveys. The website Tester.senate.gov provides all the addresses.
Meeting attendees suggested the post office do less advertising on TV for postal services, consolidate postmasters for several post offices and hire employees locally.
Bates urged community members to complete the surveys and let their legislators know what the post office provides in Elmo.
“What I take away from these meetings,” Bates said, “is that people identify the post office with their town.”
