PIQUA — The Neosho Falls post office will be closed and Piqua’s is on the bubble, about 45 residents were told here Wednesday evening.
Mike Behrend, supervisor for 104 Kansas post offices, came to give an appraisal of what discontinuation studies of many small, rural post offices means for Piqua patrons.
The news wasn’t what they wanted to hear.
Behrend said the base line thresholds for post offices were annual walk-in revenue of $27,500 and a daily work load for the postmaster of two hours. Piqua attains neither, he said.
Today, the Piqua work load is l.36 hours, about an hour and 20 minutes, during the six hours it is open, according to Postal Service audits. Meanwhile, annual revenue from on-site sales of stamps and other things has decreased each of the last three years.
“In 2008, revenue was $18,859,” Behrend said, followed by $17,954 in 2009 and $17,217 last year.
Walk-in revenue, he pointed out, does not include mail with metered postage.
A 138-day study of Piqua and many other small post offices began a month ago, with the goal of determining whether postal service to local residents could be maintained in an efficient and effective way without having the physical presence of a post office.
The Piqua post office has 13 boxes where patrons pick up mail. Other delivery is done by a rural carrier operating from the Iola office, where 174 boxes are available today, Behrend said, “8.2 miles from Piqua.”
If the Piqua office were closed — a decision that will occur after the study and a 60-day period for local protest — area residents would have options.
“Rural carriers are a post office on wheels,” Behrend said. “They can sell stamps, take packages, do anything that’s done in a post office except sell money orders,” and money orders may be arranged by sending money with the carrier — they’re bonded — who will return the next day with the financial document and change.
A village post office also might be considered for Piqua, in which a local business agrees to maintain post office boxes and sell stamps in exchange for rental and maintenance fees.
In any event, none of the rural boxes now serviced by an Iola carrier will change.
BEFORE taking questions, Behrend noted that the Postal Service had operated without any tax revenue support since 1971, and lost $8.5 billion in 2010.
“We’re looking at doing business in a better way,” he said, which led to the decision to look at consolidation of post offices in small communities. “We had 23 million work hours last year,” and the discontinuation studies are an attempt “to justify our work demand. Our employees have to be gainfully employed like those of any other business.”
He illustrated that by pointing out again that having an hour and 20 minutes of work during six hours of the Piqua office being open “is not good business.”
Although the numbers project the likelihood of Piqua’s post office closing, Behrend stressed that the study’s outcome would depend on the Postal Service being able to show that patrons could be served in an effective and efficient way.
“My heart goes out to you,” he said, but harsh realties have to be recognized.
JUDY WESTERMAN, who has worked for years with Rural Water District No. 1, told Behrend Piqua had 28 businesses and 109 people had signed a petition in support of keeping the town’s post office.
“We (the water district) spent $5,266 in 2008 on postage,” mainly to mail bills to customers, who also used local mail to pay those bills. “If we have to travel to Iola or Yates Center, it’s going to add to our costs.”
Donna Curry, Piqua State Bank, said the bank’s postage bill for a year exceeded $25,000, but, Behrend observed, that’s metered mail, and didn’t contribute to walk-in revenue generation at the post office.
“If we buy stamps instead, does that mean we’re in business” at the post office, she asked. To which she got a mildly amused “I don’t know look” from Behrend.
Marvin Lynch, Piqua Farmers Cooperative, wondered if the post office’s closing would lead to problems with the elevator’s letterheads and checks having a Piqua address, as well as notification of vendors. Having to make the changes would be time-consuming and add to costs, he said.
“We take those things into consideration,” Behrend said. “You’d be given time” to make changes. “Only those with boxes at the post office would have to change addresses. Rural delivery would stay the same. Piqua would keep its zip code.”
Behrend said when the study was completed, all information would be made available to whomever wanted it and all would have ample opportunity to protest. Also, while a recommendation on the Piqua office’s fate would be made regionally, the decision on whether to close would be made in Washington, D.C., where all discontinuation studies in progress were initiated.
“We love the rural area,” said Gwen Martin, a Woodson County commissioner. “If you move the post office to Iola (which would be the administrative office), it would be loss for Woodson County.”
Behrend said that isn’t the intention.
“No one is trying to take anything from rural America,” he said. “Some of the initiative falls on you,” to take advantage of services available through rural carriers, stamp-order books that are available by Internet or telephone and are updated monthly or whatever arrangement occurs if the Piqua office is closed.
ANOTHER meeting to discuss post offices closures will be at the Savonburg Library Monday starting at 5 p.m. The focus will be a discontinuance study for the Stark office.
