I suspect some of my neighbors are among the 1,100 signers of this petition. I can't agree with them:
Some Waynedale residents are making sure that their voices are heard before a decision is made to close their post office on Old Trail Road.
The branch is on a list of 413 offices to be closed. Waynedale resident Billie Rykard collected nearly 1100 signatures from people who oppose the closings.
Rykard says many residents who use the facility are seniors and walk to the branch.
[. . .]
It would disrupt many peoples lives if we had to go downtown."
I don't know how many people would really have to go downtown. There's a branch close by on Bluffton Road. It doesn't have window service now, but closing one of two branches so close together and instituting window service at the remaining one would seem to save the post office money. I'm not sure how many senior citizens there are who actually walk to the Waynedale branch, either.
This is one of those cases, as with the BMV branches, where we all know they need to cut spending and we also know a lot of money is wasted, but, hey, take away somebody else's service, NOT MINE. We should also be willing to support the elimination of Sunday service or, hell, even going to four days service. How many people still have stuff coming through the mail that they absolutely have to have right now?
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And how about the one day a week when all you get is junkmail? That could certainly be eliminated (the day or the junk mail).
The US Postal Service is a horse-and-buggy on an interstate highway. Portable electronic communication media has now created disdain for "snail mail." With volume declines of 9 billion pieces (more than 4% of total volume) last year and continued acceleration of that trend this year, losses that will eventually fall to the taxpayers, are expected to exceed $7 Billion in 2009.
This is just another example of a governmental agency that cannot operate efficiently or frugally . . . even after 230 years of practice. Even in the dire straits that it now faces, the Post Office is not permitted by Congress to simply close branches, eliminate personal, reduce salaries or cut back on service levels.
Much of this is caused by NIMBY postal customers. It is a shame that the voting public can turn political heads on relatively inconsequential items such as closing a branch post office, but these same folks and millions more cannot get elected officials to back down on a ruinous government controlled health plan . . . which, along with Social Security, Medicare, and many yet-unnamed social programs, will soon bankrupt the country.
I would support getting mail every other day- so one week you get mail on Mon, Wed, Fri and the next on Tue Thur.
I like Kevin's idea. And I like gadfly's attitude, although I think a case could be made to keep a minimalist postal service that provided a last-resort backup for people who still need it (and, Lois, requiring the junk mailers to pay more of the cost).