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Post office proposes cutting hours at Walker facility
By Neoma Foreman
Special to the Herald-Tribune
"We are trying to restructure hours and not offices," Mark Inglett, manager of post office operation for the area, said at a meeting at the Walker Post Office, Thursday. "We've got to do something. We are losing money."
After reviewing the 126 out of a possible 366 surveys returned from the local community, and taking into account Postal Service operation needs, retail hours for Walker Post Office will probably be 7:45 a.m. to 11:45 a.m., Monday through Friday; and 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., Saturday.
Total Saturday window service hours will not be reduced and access to delivery receptacles will not change as a result of the POST Plan realignment of weekday window service hours. Plans are being made for time locks on the doors.
"We're not asking for handouts. We're trying to sustain what we have. The Postal Service is an institution of trust and we want to keep it," Inglett said.
The Postal Service touches every person," Charles Foreman, a former Walker rural mail carrier, said. "I know it costs a lot of money to maintain, but so does the Department of Health, or police departments. Why have we picked the postal service out that it has to make money when it is a service as much as the others?"
"There have been times when the rural mail carrier has saved lives," Joe Bush, a Walker rural resident said. "We need to keep the local delivery."
"We have no plans to cut any delivery, but not sure if the rural routes will be housed out of another post office, or stay here," Inglett said. "No one can touch the service provided by postal employees. We don't want to make a change and have it make a negative effect. We will take into account all information received at this meeting before making a final decision."
Nevertheless, unless the proposal changes in the meantime, the post office hours will be cut in half beginning in February.