Tester backs rural post offices
community members weigh in on potential post office closings
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In a town with a population of fewer than 300 people, the post office can be one of few gathering areas for community members. Dixon and Elmo are two such towns, and their post offices are both on a list for potential closure. The proposed closures would force Elmo residents to drive four miles to Big Arm or 10 miles to Dayton for their postal needs, while Dixon residents would have to travel up to 17 miles to the nearest post office.
Douglas Baty of Dixon owns Wild Plum Farm and grows organic crops such as garlic and herbs. Sometimes the farmer needs to mail out garlic braids or honey for his business, and the 66-year-old said it’s much more convenient to drive a few miles in town rather than the roundtrip 20-plus miles to the post office in neighboring St. Ignatius. The town of Arlee is about 40 miles roundtrip, and Charlo is more than 30 miles.
During the winter, Ravalli Hill makes the drive more problematic, he added.
But if the U.S. Postal Service makes good on a proposal to close the Dixon and Elmo Post Offices, along with 83 more in Montana, Baty and others will have to tack on more miles to send and receive mail.
“Our farm is not going to quit without the post office,” Baty said. “It’s going to affect us as community members. I’m feeling elderly at 66, but there are lots of people living here that are 80 or 90. They are not going to make it to St. Ignatius.”
The loss of the post office would impact the elderly and the handicapped in a bad economy, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Councilman Terry Pitts said.
“The voice of the tribe is speaking for all the tribal members here,” Pitts said.
Elmo resident Rosemary Caye agreed the potential closures would do more harm than good.
The people who will be most affected by the post office closure, if it happens, will be the elders, Caye believes.
“They’ve been here many years, and it’s a tradition,” Caye said.
Citing a handicapped man and his partner who live several blocks from the Post Office, Dede Jolma, Officer in Charge at the Elmo Post Office, said the man drives to the post office every day, and it would cost more for gas to drive to either Big Arm or Dayton. The lady receives many packages, which would be a problem if the post office were to be replaced with cluster boxes since all the parcels would not fit, also requiring a trip to the post office.
At a meeting in the Elmo Community Center on Aug. 31, Helena Postmaster Ken Bates and Shawna Gilroy, Polson Postmistress, met with about 50 community residents. The message at that meeting was that the United States Postal Service needed to save money to keep it afloat. The USPS lost close to $7 billion last year, Bates explained, 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 to decide which ones to keep in operation. Another cost-cutting measure was closing post offices on Saturday.
The Dixon community has had two meetings to address locals’ concerns and answer questions. Representatives from Sen. Jon Tester and Congressman Dennis Rehberg’s offices attended the first one on Sept. 1. The second meeting, organized by the community, was a session to brainstorm what they could do further to stop the closing. Sen. Max Baucus’ Missoula staff sent a representative to the community meeting.
“We were promised three meetings, but we got one,” Dixon resident Mariss McTucker said.
She estimated that around 50 to 60 people attended both meetings. Community members have been encouraged to fill out comment forms and send them to their senators and congressmen.
Proposals posted in post offices in September gave community members 60 days for public comment. McTucker said she has been busy calling residents encouraging them to write letters or fill out the public comment surveys.
In addition to the issue of convenience, McTucker said closing the post office would eliminate some security. The Dixon Post Office provides delivery and retail service to 94 post office boxes and 98 delivery routes. If the post office closes, customers have the option to receive delivery and retail services from a rural or contract carrier. But McTucker does not like the idea of checks or even medication that comes by mail being easily accessible in mailboxes on Highway 200 that cuts through Dixon.
“I’ve called everyone in the phone book,” she said, to encourage residents to voice their concerns and questions.
There was also a number for the Postal Regulatory Commission in South Dakota residents could call to voice their opinions. Baty said he left numerous messages but never received a call back.
“I couldn’t get in my full rant when I made the phone calls, because you only have so much time to leave a message,” he said.
Baty feels the closure of the Dixon Post Office does not save a significant cost, but impacts the community significantly.
“It reminds me of the false effectiveness of corporations,” he explained. “You have the head of the Postal Service making $800,000 a year, and to cut cost, they have to close a little post office.”
The Postmaster General made about $800,000 in total compensation in 2010.
Gilroy explained the decision to potentially close Dixon and Elmo Post Offices was determined by numbers. Elmo is a level 11 post office, while Dayton is a level 13; the smaller the number, the smaller the revenue. Dixon is a level 11 post office.
Gilroy added that post offices with very small offices, not open even eight hours per day, start at levels 55 or 53 and move all the way up to a 20, such as Polson, to a very large office, such as Billings, at 26.
On Nov. 9, the Senate panel passed a measure by Tester to prevent the U.S. Postal Service from closing rural post offices until they show clear reasons for closure. The USPS must also implement alternative ways to save money, such as shortening hours of operations or relocating post offices. The measure passed the senate panel but must now pass the full senate and then the house.
In a news release earlier this month, Sen. Jon Tester stated, “There is no doubt that the Postal Service needs strong action to get back on sound financial footing. But the Postmaster General cannot balance his books on the back of rural America. Montanans have made it clear to me that they depend on their community post offices for reliable mail service, and I won’t let the Postal Service ignore their voices.”
“We are not sure how this will affect everything,” Pete Nowacki of the U.S. Postal Service said of the measure.
But some residents said they feel more confident since Baucus, Tester and Rehberg have entered the fray.
Rehberg initiated Mail Drop Montana, in which he asked Montanans concerned about losing their local post offices to send a message from their local post office to him detailing how a post office closure would affect them. According to Jed Link, Rehberg’s communications director, the congressman planned to present this information to the USPS either Nov. 14 or 15.
Another way of dealing with the problem is Baucus’ bill, introduced on Oct. 4. The bill would provide about $7 billion to keep the USPS in the black this year and prevents any closure of rural post offices more than 10 miles from another post office.
Dixon and Elmo are still in the 60-day public comment phase until the end of this week. The proposals will come down, and all materials related to the possible closures, including comments, letters and questions received, will be reviewed by the postal headquarters.
According to Nowacki, it will take a few weeks for the final decision to be made. If the post offices are deemed closable, the decision will be posted at the post office for 30 days. During this time customers will have the chance to appeal to the Postal Regulatory Commission. If there are no appeals, the offices cannot close for at least 60 days after the posting of the final determination.
“It is highly unlikely that either of these offices (Dixon and Elmo) will be closed before February at the earliest,” Nowacki said.
So for residents in Dixon and Elmo, the fates of their post offices hang in the air, but measures by in the state government and local communities give towns a little breathing room.
“If they close down the post office, it will affect rural Montana and cut out the heart of towns,” McTucker emphasized.
