Residents of Dunmore received good news last week at a community meeting when Manager of Post Office Operations Bill Akers said the Dunmore Post Office will remain open.

Akers explained that the United States Postal Service has been suffering financial woes and is looking for ways to cut costs, including closing or reducing hours at rural post offices.

“Customers are doing more business online,” he said. “They pay bills, they send greetings and invitations by the Internet. More than 400 million transactions have left the postal service and they are not coming back.”

Due to the drop in transactions, the postal service is implementing a new program which will take place at Dunmore.

“As you know, a few weeks ago the postal service sent a letter and survey to everyone in this community,” Akers said. “The letter explained that we are beginning a new program called the POST program and we are here this evening to explain exactly what the POST plan means for your office.”

The POST program reduces hours of full-time post offices to either two, four or six hours. Dunmore Post Office will now be open four hours a day, Monday through Friday, and two hours on Saturday.

“It is designed to give communities the opportunity to preserve their post office with realigned hours,” Akers said. “The lobby will continue to remain open at its current time. Any mail deposited in the blue box outside will be picked up at its current time, as well.”

Several customers asked Akers how the USPS determined that Dunmore should be a four-hour post office.

“The reduction of hours is due to the decline of mail volume and the work volume between the existing staff,” he explained. “You have 40 PO boxes. The majority of people in Dunmore get their mail delivered. Honestly, without that route, you would never be able to hold four hours. The route really makes the difference.”

Akers explained that there are three options for lobby hours.

“We will look at first of all, having a 24 hour lobby,” he said. “The other option is, we’ve had offices where you put in a day lock. The office will automatically open at 8 a.m. and at 5 p.m. it will shut. There is a panic bar in case you get stuck in there. The third option, and we do this quite frequently at a lot of offices, we give every person that has a PO box a key to the front door and you come in and get your mail whenever you want.”

Akers said the proposal for Monday through Friday is 11:15 a.m. to 3:15 p.m., although the hours may be changed if customers prefer another four hour slot. He added that the Saturday hours will change to accommodate the delivery time.

Akers did not give an effective date for the change because the USPS needs to evaluate the office and make adjustments before those changes can take place.

Suzanne Stewart may be contacted at sastewart@pocahontastimes.com