USPS: Don't Shut Down Madison's Post Offices

The community understands that the United States Postal Service needs to address certain debt requirements (http://bit.ly/PAEAstipulation), but the planned reduction of hours (http://bit.ly/MadisonPO) and the elimination of all but one Postmaster in Madison County tears at the fabric of our rural way of life while creating unreasonable hardship for our citizens and businesses.

Some of our key concerns include:

Madison is a geographically large rural county that relies heavily on the Post Office for its services; reduced and restricted hours will not provide the opportunity for citizens to access those services.

Madison County has many home based businesses that rely heavily on the Post Office for service.

Madison County has limited cell and internet service and relies on traditional Post Office services.

Many of our residents rely on timely prescription drug deliveries.

Madison County Post Offices are communication points for our Emergency Management Plan.

Rural package delivery relies on local Post Office hours to pick up items that cannot be left.

Madison County still has Rural Delivery addresses and many PO Boxes.

Our second busiest Post Office, Brightwood, would be reduced to only 4 hours.

Our third busiest Post Office, Hood, would be reduced to only 4 hours.

Madison County was not presented with viable options.

Since 2010, the Post Office has closed two locations and instituted a 38% reduction in hours in Madison County, in addition to closing three other Post Offices here between 1993 and 2007.

This new round of proposed reductions will reduce another 41% fewer hours of service.

The county has not been considered in its totality by looking at other options and combinations, such as condensing or combining two or more part-time offices into one full-time office.