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Residents get little hope for saving post office
(by Joan Demirjian - June 15, 2011)
Residents get little hope for saving post office
By JOAN DEMIRJIAN
The marketplace is changing, and the U.S. Postal Service has to adapt to those changes, according to Victor Dubina, a spokesman for the postal service.
He spoke Monday at Fellowship Bible Church in Bainbridge to residents of the 44023 ZIP code area, including Bainbridge and Auburn townships, to explain the postal service's plans for the Bainbridge branch of the Chagrin Falls Post Office.
In response to questions on why the Bainbridge office could close, Mr. Dubina said declining revenues are prompting the closing of post offices everywhere.
The proposal is to close the Bainbridge site and move all operations to Chagrin Falls, he said.
"We have to get out from under some of the infrastructure costs. We have to consolidate the number of facilities we have," Mr. Dubina said. "We're at a point where the hard decisions have to be made."
The Bainbridge branch is housed in a leased building on East Washington Street, west of Chillicothe Road (Route 306). The Chagrin Falls Post Office is also on East Washington Street in Chagrin Falls, about two miles west of the Bainbridge branch.
"Eighty percent of post offices don't cover their expenses to operate," Mr. Dubina said. The postal service pays $157,000 annually for the lease of the Bainbridge building, he said.
Bainbridge mail carriers will move to the Chagrin Falls site, and post office boxes will be relocated, he said.
"We got a one-year extension on the lease for the Bainbridge office," Mr. Dubina said. The extension will give the postal service time to look at buying land around the Chagrin Falls Post Office for additional parking and extending space for post office boxes, he said.
The retail business at the Bainbridge office will remain until the move, Mr. Dubina said. The postal service will possibly seek out businesses in Bainbridge willing to take on the sale of stamps and shipping packages, as well as housing post office boxes, he said.
Bainbridge resident Annie Rodewig suggested selling the Chagrin Falls office on East Washington Street and buying property in Bainbridge. It is the new place for growth, she said.
"I have a real problem with going to Chagrin Falls," she said. "It's a nightmare on that street." There is no left-turn lane on East Washington Street at that point, and traffic is often backed up, she said. "Move Chagrin Falls out here. Bainbridge has a nicer facility."
However, Mr. Dubina said, there is a law preventing post offices from simply being closed solely for financial reasons. "And there are costs in buying property and building a new facility," he said. In addition, he said, there is a building freeze for the next three or four years because of declining revenue.
The U.S. Postal Service, an independent agency of the federal government, handled 213 billion pieces of mail in 2006, but that volume dropped to 170.6 billion pieces in 2010, Mr. Dubina said. By 2020, it is estimated to drop to 150 billion pieces.
"We always talk in terms of volume," Mr. Dubina said. "When volume goes down, the revenue is going down. We lost $8 1/2 billion nationally last year and $3 1/2 billion the year before. This year the loss is estimated at $7 billion.
"That's $24 million a day. Those are levels for single-piece stamped mail that have not been seen since the 1960s," he said.
The U.S. Postal Service has looked at cutting to five-day service, but Congress has said it must deliver six days, Mr. Dubina said.
"We'll run out of cash by July of next year," he said.
Robert Stratton, a mail carrier with the Bainbridge office, said they have to leave the building because of the cost of leasing it. Maintenance costs are high, he said. "The amount of money to keep it open is ridiculous," he said. "It's a hardship on everyone."
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