“Meeting the needs of postal customers is, and will always be, a top priority. We continue to balance that by better aligning service options with customer demand and reducing the cost to serve,” said Postmaster General and CEO Patrick R. Donahoe in a press release issued in May 2012. “With that said, we’ve listened to our customers in rural America and we’ve heard them loud and clear – they want to keep their Post Office open.”
Residents of Meadow and Oak City were invited to separate meetings with John Barclay, manager of Post office Operations for southern Utah, on Wed., January 23. Barclay was there to explain changes in postal deliveries in their communities and answer questions.
Hours at the Meadow and Oak City Post Offices will be cut back to four hours a day at the retail service desk. Retail service desk hours will be 8 a.m. to noon Monday through Friday. Saturday hours will remain the same. This change will take place in late February or early March. The buildings will continue to be open to the public to pick up mail and drop off letters or packages that do not require assistance as before.
Barclay said it would not, only service at the post offices would change. “Rural delivery is grandfathered in,” he said. Barclay said a need for more lockers Barclay said about one year ago the USPS identified about 3000 smaller offices. The USPS had a mandate to match costs with revenues. It was suggested some smaller post offices be closed and/ or consolidated with larger offices—having people from a smaller town drive to a larger town to get their mail. “Meetings to discuss these actions started. It was not popular. People met with their congressmen and the proposal was stopped. Congress came up with a plan that will be constant nationwide,” Barclay said.
In Postal Service jargon, Post Offices are called “retail outlets/units.” The new plan is called referred to as the Post Plan. It called for an evaluation of the work load at the retail units. Smaller units have workloads varying between two hours, four hours six hours and eight hours per day to get their work done. Using data from the surveys and the unit evaluations the USPS determined the new operating to handle parcels from the USPS, FedEx and UPS at the retail units was anticipated. More will be installed if necessary.
The post office in Oak City will become a remote managed site overseen by the Delta postmaster. Meadow will report to the Fillmore postmaster.
The final decisions regarding the operating hours of these two post offices will be posted along with implementation dates in the near future. Millard County Chronicle
