This is a familiar refrain, isn’t it? In light of $8 billion in the operating losses last year, the United States Postal Service is considering closing some 3600 locations across the country.
The euphemistically named “Expanded Access Study List,” for Maine names 34, mostly rural locations, including two in Lincoln County: Trevett in Boothbay and Chamberlain in Bristol.
Traditionally, what happens now is a variant of the familiar Not-In-My-Back-Yard theme mutates into its lesser-known cousin: the Keep-It-In-My-Backyard theme.
Congressmen usually get called in and take up for their constituents and the whole thing almost always blows over with some variation of the phrase “needs further study.”
Generally, supporters of their local post office will argue that their branch can’t close. It’s so convenient. It’s a nerve center of the community, where neighbors meet neighbors. The Postmaster knows everyone by name. Closing their small, rural office would leave a hole in the fabric of the community… All of which is true.
These arguments get rehashed every time USPS floats this trial balloon. The difference these days is the current political climate is such that people might see the upside to saving $8 billion dollars.
The USPS, being a famously inefficient bureaucracy is always an easy target, but even if it were run right tight to the screws, these small rural offices are not just cost efficient. No businessman in his right mind would open a store in New Harbor, put another one in Chamberlain, one in Round Pond, one in Bremen and one in Waldoboro. That’s five locations inside 20 miles, all near Rt. 32, and doesn’t even account for three others on the same peninsula.
Certainly, having all these small little offices scattered around made more sense when travel for most people was limited to how far they could bear to walk, but those days are long gone now.
As much financial sense as it makes, however, these same rural offices are harder targets. A visit to the Post Office in Portland can feel like a day without sunshine. It feels like a bureaucracy. In offices like Chamberlain, the Postmaster likely knows your parents, and grandparents, and your children, too.
Thing is, this is what we are talking about when speaking about less taxes and shrinking the government. What we are really talking about is less services; less shared community. Some people think that’s a good thing and they may be right. Certainly from a business standpoint they are, but Post Offices exist where they do today because it is a traditional service the government has provided to all at shared expense.
The Postal Service needs to be run better and closing these small offices are one way to improve the bottom line, but really, for rural areas in Maine and across the country, we’re not talking about closing a bureaucracy here. No, we are talking about losing the place we get our mail.
