Several Escambia Post Offices Could Be Closed; Find Out Which Ones

July 3, 2009

Several Escambia County post office locations are among 3,200 that the United States Postal Service will review for possible closure or consolidation over the next 60 days.

The USPS will consider the Pensacola Post Office and the  Downtown, Myrtle Grove, Warrington, East Hill and Nobles stations for closure or consolidation. USPS stations are subsidiary locations of a main post office, and they do not have their own postmaster.

North Escambia area posts offices are not on the chopping block at this time. The Century, McDavid, Molino, Cantonment, Jay, Flomaton and Atmore post offices are not being considered for closure or consolidation at this time, according to Joseph Breckenridge, spokesperson for the USPS. The post office in Walnut Hill is a contract station operated by Escambia River Electric Cooperative and is also not on the list.

“In your area, you can pretty much ignore it,” Breckinridge told NorthEscambia.com about the closure study. “We are only looking at main offices,  stations and branches in the major population centers.”

“We are not looking at any post offices in the rural areas,” he added. “We are looking at those post offices in cities were they are just a few miles apart, not the post offices where it is miles and miles to next station.”

Congress has actually made it harder to close small post offices like those in rural communities, mandating that small post offices can’t be closed just because they are not generating enough revenue. Small post offices can be closed, however, when their leases expire.

The decisions as to which post offices might close could come soon — with postal officials saying that the decision could be made within 60 days. There would be a 10-day public comment period for affected customers to speak out about the closure of their post office.

Postal customers in rural North Escambia, North Santa Rosa and Escambia County (Ala.) would not see any difference in their mail delivery if several of the Pensacola stations were to close, said Breckinridge.

Faced with losses expected to exceed $6 billion in 2009, the Postal Service is looking to cut costs. Breckinridge said that mail volume fell by 9.5 million pieces last year and is expected to decline another 20 billion pieces this year.

Comments

4 Responses to “Several Escambia Post Offices Could Be Closed; Find Out Which Ones”

  1. Elizabeth on July 4th, 2009 9:22 am

    I figured that Century would pick up McDavid’s routes, but you’re right escambiamom, there wouldn’t be a lot of savings I guess.

  2. escambiamom on July 3rd, 2009 11:26 am

    It probably wouldn’t be enough savings to close McDavid. They are looking at the main offices where there could be duplication by a nearby PO.

  3. Elizabeth on July 3rd, 2009 9:48 am

    I’m honestly surprised that they’re not considering the McDavid office.

  4. interested reader on July 3rd, 2009 8:27 am

    THANK GOODNESS the EREC will still have the Walnut Hill Post Office open. Our rural mail service is so poor that we NEVER put mail in the box. It seems to get worse instead of better. I don’t know the answer, but again the north end is getting left behind when it comes to services. OH WELL, what else is new. I’m glad I’m up here instead of below 9 mile road anyway. Can’t have everything.