Tiny towns battle to keep post offices
Beetown - It's not so much the cost to change business cards and invoices, the hassle of driving much farther to mail packages or the longer wait to get mail, it's the loss of identity.
If the post office leaves, will Beetown eventually turn into a ghost town?
"I know we're a small community, but it's nice it's there," said Jim Morgan, president of Schurman's Wisconsin Cheese Country Inc. "Everybody is kind of upset. I don't think anybody wants it closed."
From Herbster in the northern tip of Wisconsin, to Woodford in the south, and Collins and Beldenville in the east and west - 41 post offices in Wisconsin are under consideration for closure. Aside from five urban post offices in Milwaukee, the rest facing the ax are in tiny communities scattered throughout the state.
When the U.S. Postal Service last month released state-by-state lists of post offices it's considering closing - about 3,700 nationwide - many residents and business owners were upset to learn their villages and towns could lose the place where they regularly meet their neighbors, catch up on community news, buy stamps and mail holiday packages.
The Postal Service says it's billions of dollars in the hole and since the agency receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, it has to make cuts such as closing post offices and mail processing facilities. It's also considering raising postage rates and ending mail delivery on Saturdays.
More than 3,000 post offices - out of a total of 32,000 - earn less than $15,000 annually, said U.S. Postal Service spokesman Tim Ratliff. An additional 9,000 post offices earn revenue of less than $40,000.
"That's far less than needed to cover expenses. The Postal Service plays an important role in the United States," Ratliff said. "We go to every single address. We know people depend on us. At the same time, if we are to have a Postal Service in operation tomorrow, we need to make changes today in light of the economic... [continues]
Beetown - It's not so much the cost to change business cards and invoices, the hassle of driving much farther to mail packages or the longer wait to get mail, it's the loss of identity.
If the post office leaves, will Beetown eventually turn into a ghost town?
"I know we're a small community, but it's nice it's there," said Jim Morgan, president of Schurman's Wisconsin Cheese Country Inc. "Everybody is kind of upset. I don't think anybody wants it closed."
From Herbster in the northern tip of Wisconsin, to Woodford in the south, and Collins and Beldenville in the east and west - 41 post offices in Wisconsin are under consideration for closure. Aside from five urban post offices in Milwaukee, the rest facing the ax are in tiny communities scattered throughout the state.
When the U.S. Postal Service last month released state-by-state lists of post offices it's considering closing - about 3,700 nationwide - many residents and business owners were upset to learn their villages and towns could lose the place where they regularly meet their neighbors, catch up on community news, buy stamps and mail holiday packages.
The Postal Service says it's billions of dollars in the hole and since the agency receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, it has to make cuts such as closing post offices and mail processing facilities. It's also considering raising postage rates and ending mail delivery on Saturdays.
More than 3,000 post offices - out of a total of 32,000 - earn less than $15,000 annually, said U.S. Postal Service spokesman Tim Ratliff. An additional 9,000 post offices earn revenue of less than $40,000.
"That's far less than needed to cover expenses. The Postal Service plays an important role in the United States," Ratliff said. "We go to every single address. We know people depend on us. At the same time, if we are to have a Postal Service in operation tomorrow, we need to make changes today in light of the economic... [continues]
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