List of Post Offices being reviewed for possible closure

flintauqua · July 13, 2011, 05:02:44 PM

A much better zoomable map of zipcodes. Can click on a county, or just zoom and pan around the state map.

http://zipmap.net/Kansas.htm

flintauqua · July 13, 2011, 05:10:50 PM

Here's a telephone exchange map of Kansas that makes for an interesting compare and contrast with zipcodes:

http://www.kcc.state.ks.us/maps/ks_telephone_certified_areas.pdf

Make sure and blow the PDF up to 100% to view better.

Marcia Moore · July 13, 2011, 06:05:27 PM

I was a tiny bit wrong on the timing it now takes to shut a post office down. The article actually said the time it takes to shut down an office is changing from 21 months (not 22 months, as I said earlier), to about 4-1/2 months.

greatguns · July 13, 2011, 09:06:47 PM

Maybe if the U.S. Postal Service had not decided to sell there stamps on line more people would buy at their local Post Office. They would have more income if they had not decided to let people have free P O boxes instead of renting them like they use to. If in fact they need to shut them down to save money, then they should understand why I would rather drive to Severy to pick up a package (14 miles round trip) rather than to Eureka (50 miles round trip). I live in Piedmont and cannot figure out where they came up with 200 some people. My count or theirs is way off.

kshillbillys · July 13, 2011, 09:20:41 PM

Income from PO box rental and selling stamps online has nothing to do with why the postal service is in dire straits right now. It's called prefunding retirement! http://www.nalc.org/postal/reform/fvr_statement.html Here's a little excerpt from that:
That's right. This immediate crisis was initiated in 2006 when Congress, in cooperation with the Bush administration, included the prefunding requirement in the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA). What appeared to be affordable in 2006 is clearly unaffordable today. Over the past three years, as the economy slipped into the worst recession in 80 years, the Postal Service has had to pony up $12.4 billion to prefund future retiree health benefits - on top of some $6 billion for current retiree health benefits.

No other agency - including the United States Congress - or private company faces such a legal obligation to prefund. Indeed, such prefunding is not even required by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), which establishes accounting rules for both private and public organizations. And as an annual survey conducted by Watson Wyatt found in 2009, only about a third of Fortune 1000 companies voluntarily prefund retiree health obligations at all - and those that do have set aside much less than the Postal Service has already.

Add in the fact that a lot of people pay their bills online (or not at all) and the fact that a lot of people don't send handwritten letters and cards and the Postal Service is losing money hand over fist!

srkruzich · July 13, 2011, 09:27:34 PM

Quote from: kshillbillys on July 13, 2011, 09:20:41 PM
Income from PO box rental and selling stamps online has nothing to do with why the postal service is in dire straits right now. It's called prefunding retirement! http://www.nalc.org/postal/reform/fvr_statement.html Here's a little excerpt from that:
That's right. This immediate crisis was initiated in 2006 when Congress, in cooperation with the Bush administration, included the prefunding requirement in the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA). What appeared to be affordable in 2006 is clearly unaffordable today. Over the past three years, as the economy slipped into the worst recession in 80 years, the Postal Service has had to pony up $12.4 billion to prefund future retiree health benefits - on top of some $6 billion for current retiree health benefits.

No other agency - including the United States Congress - or private company faces such a legal obligation to prefund. Indeed, such prefunding is not even required by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), which establishes accounting rules for both private and public organizations. And as an annual survey conducted by Watson Wyatt found in 2009, only about a third of Fortune 1000 companies voluntarily prefund retiree health obligations at all - and those that do have set aside much less than the Postal Service has already.

Add in the fact that a lot of people pay their bills online (or not at all) and the fact that a lot of people don't send handwritten letters and cards and the Postal Service is losing money hand over fist!

Then its time to change their business model. Make cuts to benefits. In a day and age Fedex and UPS are making money hand over fist, the USPS needs to compete with lower prices faster service.

I have to say it really SUCKS when you ship a package parcel post! I shipped a beehive to Oklahoma City from Piedmont. IT TOOK 15 days to get there. THats why the post office is going broke! The service sucks! THis is not a single one time event either. I shipped a beehive stand to Springfield missouri. Parcel post ground package, took 12 days to arrive. Hell i mailed a letter from here, to Rock Springs Georgia. 8 days to arrive first class mail. Oh just sent a priority mail package to my mother from piedmont. Shipped on monday arrived on friday? What the heck happened to the 3 day service of priority mail?? Seriously i know you work for them but they are shooting themselves in their own foot.

srkruzich · July 13, 2011, 09:28:39 PM

Quote from: greatguns on July 13, 2011, 09:06:47 PM
Maybe if the U.S. Postal Service had not decided to sell there stamps on line more people would buy at their local Post Office. They would have more income if they had not decided to let people have free P O boxes instead of renting them like they use to. If in fact they need to shut them down to save money, then they should understand why I would rather drive to Severy to pick up a package (14 miles round trip) rather than to Eureka (50 miles round trip). I live in Piedmont and cannot figure out where they came up with 200 some people. My count or theirs is way off.

Stamps online? LOL. why pay more for stamps. I just put the change in the box. Leaves a book the next day. SHrug.

kshillbillys · July 13, 2011, 09:38:01 PM

Well, I can't speak for what happens after the mail leaves my hands at night to be shipped out on trucks but I can speak for the exceptional service I give in delivering the mail. The PO has been trying to get things changed from what we are told at our meetings. I don't agree with everything that is done in the postal service, but I just do MY job and I'm damned good at it!

greatguns · July 13, 2011, 09:46:02 PM

I don't buy stamps on line either, but that is how the small town post offices revenue up. By selling stamps and renting post office boxes. Some love it because it gives them job insurance and some of us want to keep our postal services in our home town. It is just like the mouse that ran across the mirror, it just depends on your point of view.

srkruzich · July 13, 2011, 10:12:06 PM

Quote from: greatguns on July 13, 2011, 09:46:02 PM
I don't buy stamps on line either, but that is how the small town post offices revenue up. By selling stamps and renting post office boxes. Some love it because it gives them job insurance and some of us want to keep our postal services in our home town. It is just like the mouse that ran across the mirror, it just depends on your point of view.

I've done my fair share of supporting them. I usually ship USPS rather than fedex or UPS but its starting to get better to use the other guys. I don't know.......