Post Office Update

You may remember THIS POST from back in October about the likely imminent closing of the Inverness  Post Office, as well as many other post offices throughout the nation.

Today, a bill passed through the senate that would keep our post office in Inverness, and others, open for at least another year.  Here's the link to the article I found in the Great Falls Tribune: http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201204250500/NEWS01/204250303.  The bill places a moratorium on closing rural post offices, for now.  According to the bill's proposal, several criteria are suggested when deciding what post offices should be recommended for closure after the one-year time period.  These factors include dependence of small-town businesses upon the U.S. Postal Service, quality of local internet connection, and proximity to other nearby post offices.  The specific distance cited is ten miles.

Of the four post offices in our stretch of the Hi-Line (between Havre and Chester), those in Kremlin, Hingham, Inverness, and Joplin are each on the list of recommended closures.  Of those, based purely on what I am going to call the "Ten Mile Rule," I would say that Hingham and Inverness would both probably remain on the recommended closures list. Joplin probably would be safe, and I think Kremlin would be, too.

One can't know what other factors went unmentioned in the news article that may be taken into account when the final decision is made about each individual post office.  Furthermore, I don't think the bill has made it through the House of Representatives yet, either, so there still could be revisions.  I don't understand the politics behind why closing post offices is a partisan issue, falling strictly along party lines.

Image Credit: Gary Splittberger, via www.postmarks.org

I guess for now we have at least one more year to enjoy the services provided by the Inverness Post Office, and I intend to make the most of it.  Buy your stamps at a post office location, not at a bank or grocery store. Ship via USPS.  Write letters, send postcards!  Do a little research and find out what post offices may close near your home.  If your local post office were to close, how would it affect you?