Associated Press
HACKER VALLEY, W.Va. — Retha Casto doesn’t pay her bills online, connect with friends through Facebook or use GPS for directions. So when the U.S. Postal Service decided after 153 years to suspend operations at the Hacker Valley post office, the 87-year-old woman picked up her pen.
“For God’s sake and yours too please think of the people — not just the money,” she pleaded to the federal Postal Regulatory Commission, which oversees the Postal Service.
Casto’s three-page, handwritten letter has spurred the commission to investigate whether the Postal Service violated procedures or the will of Congress when it shut down Hacker Valley and 96 other post offices in 34 states over the past five years.
The cutbacks — which come as the financially ailing Postal Service struggles with a sharp decline in mail because of the Internet and the recession — have fallen most heavily on poor, rural communities, where the post office is not just a place to buy stamps, but a gathering spot where townspeople trade news and gossip.
The Postal Service cited an emergency — soon-to-expire leases — in suspending operations at the nearly 100 post offices. Ultimately, 25 were officially closed, five are facing closure, and Hacker Valley and 64 others are in limbo.
At issue in the dispute is the distinction between closing a post office and suspending service.
Under federal law, closings require 60 days’ notice, opportunities for public comment, an accounting of the reasons for the decision and an opportunity for residents to appeal. Suspensions, which are supposed to be used during natural disasters, health or safety hazards or unanticipated lease problems, do not carry the same requirements.
The commission could refer the matter to Congress. Townspeople in many of the communities — including Midland, Ohio; Coralville, Iowa; Crescent Lake, Ore.; Prairie City, S.D.; Laketon, Ind.; and Howell, Utah — are hoping Congress intervenes and rescues their post offices.
The suspensions come as the Postal Service has raised rates, cut employees from 800,000 to 623,000 and eliminated 12,000 carrier routes because of a $7 billion deficit. It is also looking at additional cuts, including the closing of hundreds of post offices, Postal Service spokesman Greg Frey said.
