Reading residents lobby for Post Office
By Russ Morgan - russ@emporiagazette.com
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
In a town still showing the scars of a terrible storm, more than 100 Reading residents and members of nearby communities showed up at the Reading School Tuesday evening to voice their concerns regarding the possibility of having the Reading post office shut down for good. Also attending the meeting were representatives of U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp and state legislators Sen. Jeff Longbine and Rep. Peggy Mast. Also present were Lyon County officials Scott Briggs and Rick Frevert.
The meeting, held by two representatives of the United States Postal Service, was organized to take public comment after the post office in Reading was put on a list of rural offices to be studied for possible closure.
The heart of the controversy lies in the fact that the Reading post office was not on a list before a tornado tore through the town on the night of May 21; many residents see the placing of the town on the list as one more blow just as they are struggling to recover.
Sam Gonzales, post office operating manager for post offices in northeast Kansas and Dorothy Bryan, district review coordinator for eastern Kansas, explained that being placed on the list doesn’t necessarily mean the Reading Post Office will be closed; the act sets off a process of study that is affecting rural post offices across the country. The study comes as the Postal Service struggles to remain in business. Nationally, the service lost more than $8 billion last year and may lose more this year. To help cut costs, the service has cut 120,000 jobs and looks to close up to 3,700 rural post offices across the country, including possibly over 100 in Kansas.
“That’s where we stand right now,” Bryan said. “We’re in terrible financial shape. We’ve got to make some cuts. We’ve got to reduce employment, and this is where we are.” She explained that other types of cuts have been discussed, such as eliminating Saturday delivery, but that is a decision that has to be made by Congress. “... We are here tonight to discuss what may or may not happen in Reading.”
As part of the study, a docket will be prepared containing comments from community members and petitions. The docket will be reviewed at the upper level of the postal service when making its decision on cuts. To that end, Bryan encouraged residents to add their comments and concerns to the docket.
The tornado that struck Reading destroyed the post office; since then residents have had to travel to Lebo for their mail, a trip of almost 30 miles. The town has been attempting to get a temporary office but have not yet succeeded.
Reta Jackson, owner of the Miracle Cafe, spoke of how important a local post office is to a small-town business. “We understand how hard it is to make ends meet and to make it feasible to do your business,” she said. “I don’t do my bills on the computer. I don’t mail my cinnamon rolls through the computer. I do it all through that post office, and I do it on an every other day basis.” She went on to explain the feeling of seeing Reading on the list at such a sensitive time. “It does leave a bitter taste in our mouth.”
Renee Lippincott, of the Kansas Department of Commerce, agreed. “... What disturbs me is that they are now on the list simply because they had a temporary closure of the post office,” she said. “... Everybody is very disturbed about the inconvenience and the hardships, but I’m right now looking at the future of Reading. The community of Reading had a disaster, not by anything they did, it was a natural disaster. ... They are a determined group of people trying to recover. ...
“It’s not right. It’s not necessary. It’s not fair.”
Gonzales explained that Reading likely would have been added to the list either way because of the volume of mail it handled. “But the timing was not good at all,” he said. “Our headquarters are the ones who generate that list.”
“And you don’t see any of them here,” Lippincott replied. “They don’t see this community in action.”
Gonzales replied that this meeting was one of the largest he’s seen. “That says something about Reading and its post office, it truly does,” he said.
Myron VanGundy of Reading asked how much the closing of rural post offices would benefit the Postal Service. “What I wonder is, how much of the Postal Service’s debt are the small post offices responsible for?” he asked.
Others agreed that a post office is a part of a town’s identity, and losing theirs would hurt the residents of Reading.
“We had been trying, before the tornado, to get people in our town,” said resident Ashley Barret. “But now that the post office is gone, it’s going to be even harder for us, if they completely take it away, to get more people here. Would you want to move to a town that didn’t have a post office?”