Scott Swanson
Cascadia residents will get a chance to voice their opinion on whether their neighborhood Post Office should stay open at a community meeting on Oct. 5.
Cascadia Postmaster Ruth Powers said the local Post Office, which has been in the community for a century, is one of 41 post offices being considered for closure or conversion to Village Post Offices –– based in a retail establishment such as a pharmacy or a store. Others on the list are Eddyville and Idanha.
The meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 5, at Cascadia Bible Church on Highway 20 in Cascadia.
“It’s just a discussion, so the community can provide input on the way they feel,” said Tammy Berry, postmaster at Creswell, who is assisting in organizing the meeting.
Jean Burger, known as the informal “mayor of Cascadia,” said the loss of the Post Office would have a heavy impact.
“It’s the last thing we have as a community,” she said. “It’s the bulletin board of the community. The store is gone. The school we graduated from is gone. This is all we’ve got left.”
The Post Office has approximately 70 boxholders, while some 25 people get their mail delivered via a contract rural carrier out of Lebanon.
Powers said that if a decision is made to close the branch, the United States Postal Service will offer customers the choice of boxes at the Foster Post Office or rural delivery.
Burger noted that the Cascadia Post Office is open on Saturdays, while other local branches are not, though Sweet Home is open till noon during the holiday season.
“It’s the last post office in this area open after noon on Saturday; she’s open till 3.
Powers said the hours – 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Saturday, have remained the same since she became Cascadia postmaster in 1994.
“I have full service on Saturday,” she said, adding that customers occasionally drive from other communities for services such as express or certified mail. “I had one person drive from Corvallis to mail from my Post Office because nothing else was open. It’s very rare to have hours like these.”
Burger said closure of the Post Office would create difficulty for Cascadia residents, many of whom are “retired and shut-ins. It is not a good deal. We would have to go to Foster to get our mail.”
“They should leave our Post Office alone. It’s been here for 100 years. It makes no economic sense to shut it down.”