Sean C. Morgan
Cascadia-area residents sound off on Post Office closure question
Closing the local Post Office will finish Cascadia off as a community and impose a hardship on its members, local residents told Post Office officials last week during a public meeting at Cascadia Bible Church.
The U.S. Postal Service is deciding whether to close the Cascadia Post Office, said Deborah Lambert, Cottage Grove postmaster, during the Oct. 5 meeting. “This is only a review. We’re here to get your input and feedback and provide information.”
The meeting drew some 45 people.
If the branch were to close, Cascadia Post Office box holders, which number about 65, would have several options.
One is that they travel to Foster Post Office, where they would have boxes numbered for Cascadia. They also could begin receiving route service, although postal routes don’t generally extend onto gravel roads, or they could have clusters of locked boxes at a central location. ZIP codes would not change.
With the expansion of digital communication in recent years, the U.S. Postal Service is suffering losses and is adapting by making reductions everywhere, Lambert said. Processing centers in Eugene, Salem, Bend, Pendleton and Mt. Hood are under study for closure too.
“Being an employee of that organization for 28 years, no one is safe,” Lambert told Cascadia residents. The Postal Service handled 213 billion pieces of mail in 2006. Since then, business has declined by about 20 percent.
By 2020, the Postal Service is projecting 150 billion pieces for the year.
“It took time, but it finally hit us,” Lambert said. The nation now processes 100 million tax forms via e-file, and that’s 100 million forms where people no longer need stamps.
While direct mail advertising is increasing, Lambert said, “it takes three pieces of advertising mail to match one piece of first class mail.”
Routes have grown too, she said. “Because we don’t have the volume of mail, we don’t need as many city carriers.”
Last year, the Postal Service lost $8.5 billion, Lambert said. “If we were a normal regular business model, the Postal Service would be out of business. We have lost that much money.”
The Postal Service is looking at closing 2,042 post offices, consolidating and closing buildings. Executive salaries are frozen, and 110,000 jobs have been cut, through attrition – mostly retirements.
Cascadia is on the list for potential closure because it is losing money, she said. “It costs more to keep it open than it generates in revenue. That’s part of the criteria.”
The Cascadia Post Office also generates less than two hours of workload per day, she said.
“We still want your business.”
But it will be in a different format, Lambert said.
The anticipated cost-savings from closing the Cascadia Post Office is approximately $527,000 over 10 years, Lambert said.
The decision is a 138-day process, Lambert said, and the final determination will be made by postal officials at the Postal Service Headquarters in Washington, D.C. The proposal is in the Cascadia Post office for review until Nov. 27. People may send comments until then.
Cascadia residents gave a variety of responses to the proposal.
Albany has one Post Office, said Jean Burger. Lebanon has one Post Office.
“Sweet Home has two, three miles apart,” she said. “Why don’t you close Foster and leave us alone? Over 100 years it’s been there.”
Bob Hartsock told Lambert the Postal Service has a credibility problem from the start. The Postal Service says the distance between Cascadia and Foster is nine miles.
According to an odometer reading immediately following the meeting, the actual distance is 10.4 miles, parking space to parking space.
Dan Whelan, a field representative for Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, said that Merkley was introducing a bill to prohibit the closure of post offices if they are not within 10 miles of another post office. Some 80 percent of the proposed closures exceed the 10-mile mark.
Cascadia residents listen as Deborah Lambert, right, of the U.S. Postal Service speaks at the meeting. .
Objections to closing the Post Office included the distance to Foster Post Office.
“If we had to travel to Foster for our mail, that would be a hardship,” said Joyce Keeney.
“There are things in the winter I don’t go into town for except once a month,” said Erica Morgan, a widow. Whatever the Postal Service does, it won’t be able to provide the same services if it closes the Post Office, and she will go paperless and make sure every package she orders is delivered by UPS.
Hartsock said his house is four-tenths of a mile off the street, and he objected to the idea of extending street service as an alternative. “The option is not to get it in front of my house.”
County Commissioner Roger Nyquist said, referring to the 65 people who have post office boxes, “it’s possible they may not get a mailbox and they will be stuck daily driving to Foster.”
While digital communication is one of the underlying problems for the postal business, Nyquist asked that the Postal Service “take into account the generally poor quality of Internet services up here.”
State House Dist. 17 Rep. Sherrie Sprenger asked whether the Postal Service would save that much with the costs of alternatives.
The big concern is the distance, she said, especially once the snow starts.
It’s going to cost more to bring mail to Cascadians, Burger said. “The boxes will not work. They’ll be towed off at night and dumped in the lake.”
Other Cascadia residents said address changes would affect their businesses.
Mary Burton said that it would effectively end the Clan Manachtan Association, a Scottish clan with membership worldwide. As membership secretary and co-treasurer, she said it would “create more headaches than I want to consider.”
Any membership inquiries, dues payments and address changes go through the Cascadia Post Office, she said.
All forms would have to be revised and reprinted, she said. All advertisements in the many Scottish magazines would have to be changed, along with a host of additional information.
Rural pickup and delivery isn’t an option because the dues payments and other confidential information could be taken from a rural mailbox, Burton said. “Driving nine miles one way would not only be inconvenient but also a great expense for those of us who are on fixed income.”
“Why isn’t Foster on the chopping block?” James Gourley Jr. asked. Closing Foster would increase revenues to Sweet Home and Cascadia post offices as business shifts to them.
“Maybe you should suggest that to them,” he said. “They could save money by consolidating.”
“It’s a God-given right to get your mail,” Burger said.
Doug Gray told Lambert that closing the Post Office would violate the U.S. Constitution.
Sprenger said Cacadia residents have chosen to live there. “But they had a Post Office when they made the choice.”
“It’s just a small office,” said Sweet Home City Councilor Jim Gourley Sr., who has roots in the Cascadia area. “It’s very comfortable. This community rallies around certain things,” such as the Post Office, Cascadia State Park and Cascadia Bible Church.
Cascadia had a grocery store, but it burned down, he said. “The people feel strongly about what they have and would like to keep it here.”
Cascadians will continue to get their packages in Cascadia, Gourley said, but they’ll use United Parcel Service or Federal Express.
“We’re going to lose the place where we make contact,” Hartsock said. That’s where Cascadia residents visit and find out what’s going on.
“The important thing is you’re taking our community away,” he said.
“This would be dissolving our entire community. This is the last thing. Turn out the lights.”