News

Post Plan to begin this month

Scott Wagar

10/09/2012

The U.S. Postal Service has started the Post Plan initiative in Bottineau County with a survey and public meeting setup for several local post offices in the county. The meeting will determine what type of reduced window service each community will want in their towns.

POST PLAN

In May of this year, the USPS announced the Post Plan, which is a program to assist in keeping 3,700 post offices across the nation open which were considered for closure in 2011, but made the initial cut of those offices that did close.

“In July, 2011, the Postal Service announced that we would be reviewing about 3,700 Post Office locations nationwide for possible discontinuance (closure),” said Pete Nowacki, one of the USPS’s public relation representatives. “In December, 2011, at the request of several U.S. Senators, we announced a moratorium on any Post Office closings effective until May 15, 2012. On May 9, we announced that we would not be closing any of these locations. Instead we will be (and are now in the process of) reviewing about 13,000 Post Offices under the Post Plan.”

The Post Plan calls for realigning retail window hours based on customer use.

“Meeting the needs of postal customers is, and always will be, a top priority. We continue to balance that by better aligning service options with customer demand and reducing the cost of serve,” said Postmaster General and CEO Patrick R. Donahue in media press release. “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. We believe today’s announcement will serve our customers’ need and allow us to achieve real savings to help the postal service return to long-term financial stability.”

According to the USPS, its new approach will be implemented over a two-year plan in multiple phases and is estimated to be completed in September of 2014. When the Post Plan is completed, it is estimated that the USPS will be saving a half billion dollars on a yearly basis.

“The postal service is committed to serving America’s communities and providing a responsible and fair approach for our employees and customers,” said Megan Brennan, postal service chief operating officer, through a media release. “The post office in rural America will remain open unless a community has a strong preference for one of the other options. We will not close any of these rural post offices without having provided a viable solution.”

NOTIFICATIONS
 
Last month, the USPS began notifying the 13,000 post offices nationwide for the Post Plan initiative, which includes the 3,700 rural post offices that were considered for closing.

The notification includes a survey for community members to fill out and a public meeting time to determine what the residents of each community would like to see for their local post office. The new options being offered are as follows, which according to the USPS compliments existing alternatives:

1. Provide mail delivery service to residents and businesses in the affected community by either rural carrier or highway contract route;

2. Contracting with a local business to create a Village Post Office; and

3. Offering service from a nearby post office.

In a survey conducted by Opinion Research Corporation in February of 2012, the survey explained that 54 percent of rural customers would prefer the new solution to maintain a local post office. Forty-six percent prefer one of the previously announced solutions, where 20 percent prefer a Village Post Office, 15 percent prefer providing services at a nearby post office and 11 percent prefer expanded rural delivery. The postal service stated that the Post Plan enables a community to have a post office with modify hours, along with a Village Post office.

“To better serve customers, the Postal Service continues to pursue the establishment of Village Post Offices in the communities affected by these changes and in other areas across the country, including communities with post offices,” the USPS stated in a media release. “Village Post Offices may be established in convenience stores, other local businesses, libraries, etc… (which) are managed by the proprietors. By being located inside established businesses and other places consumers already frequent, Village Post Offices offer postal service customers time saving convenience, and in most cases, longer hours than regular post offices. Village Post offices offer a wide range of popular postal products and services – the ones most used by customers – including PO Boxes, Forever stamps and pre-paid priority mail flat rate envelopes.”  

SURVEY

During October and November of this year, the residents of Antler, Kramer, Souris and Willow City will have the opportunity to express their feelings on the Post Plan after they first complete the USPS’s Post Plan Survey.

In the survey, community members in each town are being asked to select one of the following options:

  •  Keep the office open, but with realigned weekday window service hours, based on actual office workload. In case of (the post office receiving the survey), hours would change from two to four hours per weekday. Current Saturday window service hours will not change as a result of Post Plan and access to your delivery receptacles will not be impacted by Post Plan.

 

  •  Conduct a discontinuance study for the office and provide roadside mailbox delivery. Retail and delivery service would be provided through a rural carrier. Mail delivery points will be established or maintained and customers can purchase most postal services through the carrier or other alternatives access points. If you currently receive delivery service Post Plan will not affect that service.

 

  •  Conduct a discontinuance study for the office and find a suitable alternative location operated by a contractor, usually at a local business. When businesses are found that meet the criteria, these establishments are contracted through the United States Postal Service and offer stamps and flat rate products with service hours generally more expansive than what the local postal office may be able to offer.

 

  •  Conduct a discontinuance study for the office and provide P.O. Box service via another nearby post office and relocate P.O. Box delivery to that post office.


The survey also grants community members who have been notified that if their service hours are changed to two hours per weekday, will ask those rural towns to choose the service hours they would like to have during the work day, because mail delivery would likely be affected.

Once the survey is completed, the local communities will hold its public meeting where the post management will share the results of the town’s survey and answer any questions the residents have.

If a community chooses not to pick one of the four options, at that time, the USPS will keep the office open and used the proposed hours chosen by the postal service.

POSTMASTERS

Unfortunately, with the USPS attempting to reduce cost and save money with its Post Plan initiative, it will have an affect on employees’ hours and jobs, specifically for rural post masters.

“Delivery people’s hours will not be cut,” Nowacki said. “As for postmasters, it’s going to depend on the individual office. In offices that are being trimmed to two hours or four hours a day, the current postmaster there would not be in that office anymore when the change is made. We will still have postal employees running the office, but there would not be necessarily the same individual who is the postmaster now. This is where it gets a little complicated. Right now, the offices we are going to be making changes in immediately, our offices that don’t currently have a permanent postmaster on board. As this continues on the next two years, any current postmaster who is in an impacted office will have the opportunity to get on other jobs within the postal service during that period. At that time, for any reason they decided not to take a postal position; or, they can’t find another job, the postmaster there would go through our Reduction in Force process, which means they would no longer be employed by the postal service.

“(To restate), post offices that become two and four hour offices will be operated by a part-time employee. Post Offices that become a six hour office will be operated by a career Postmaster,” Nowacki continued to say. “Carriers will not be impacted by the Post Plan, and we will use established procedures within our labor agreements to ensure that impacts are minimal to any other employees.”

Nowacki added that in May of 2012 the USPS offered a $20,000 early-out incentive to 21,000 postmasters nationwide.  

BOTTINEAU COUNTY

In Bottineau County, every post office will be affected by the Post Plan with exception of Bottineau’s Post Office. Listed below is the recommendation for the eight post offices in the county:

  •  Antler – Antler Post Office will go from a six hour window service to a two hour window service. Antler’s public meeting will be on November 1. No time or location was given for its’ public meeting.   

 

  •  Kramer - Kramer Post Office will go from an eight hour service to a four hour service. Kramer’s public meeting will be on November 1. No time or location was given for its’ public meeting.   
  •  Lansford – Lansford Post Office will go from an eight hour service to a four hour service. No date for Lansford’s public meeting was set at the time of the Courant’s publishing date.  
  •  Newburg - Newburg Post Office will go from an eight hour service to a four hour service. No date for Newburg’s public meeting was set at the time of the Courant’s publishing date. Newburg Post Office has a postmaster.
  •  Maxbass - Maxbass Post Office will go from a four hour service to a two hour service. No date for Maxbass’ public meeting was set at the time of the Courant’s publishing date. Maxbass Post Office has a postmaster.  
  •  Souris - Souris Post Office will go from an eight hour service to a four hour service. Souris’ public meeting will be on November 1. No time or location was given for its’ public meeting.   
  •  Westhope - Westhope Post Office will go from an eight hour service to a six hour service. No date for Westhope’s public meeting was set at the time of the Courant’s publishing date.  Westhope Post Office has a postmaster.
  •  Willow City - Willow City Post Office will go from an eight hour service to a four hour service window each week.  Willow City’s public meeting will be at noon on October 29 at the Willow City Post Office.


For public meetings that have been set in Bottineau County, changes to their post offices will not take place until sometime after January 12, 2013.

CHANGES:

For now, what changes will take place is somewhat unknown until the survey has been filled out by those communities involved in the Post Plan. But, changes will be coming.   

 “Sad to say, it is not an option for folks to come back and say let’s leave things the way they are. The postal service is losing around $ 57 million a day and we have to look at that aspect and find ways to save,” Nowacki said. “The fact of the matter is that people are mailing less and they are doing more and more things on line. Because they are mailing less, they are coming in our offices less and we need to find a way to match up the hours that those offices are available with the amount of usage they are getting.”