Dozens of Remote Alaska post offices face reduced hours

Kaktovik-Post-Office-Alaska

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Dozens of Alaska Post Offices are potentially facing reduced hours of operation after Jan. 1, 2015.

According to the U.S. Postal Service, some of those post offices would be limited to two hours of operation a day.

The USPS said it began a plan to close the offices after it noticed a significant drop in the amount of packages delivered nationally, but later opted to reduce their hours instead.

The number of pieces of mail handled by post offices has fallen in recent years, with a 2006 total of about 213 billion decreasing to roughly 164 billion last year.

USPS spokesman Ernie Swanson said the service chose to reduce the hours of operation at some of Alaska’s remote post offices, rather than closing them, after receiving negative feedback on the idea.

Of the roughly 200 post offices in Alaska, 161 were reviewed for reduced hours.

Not all saw hours restricted, however. Forty-four “actually ended up with increased hours,” Swanson wrote in an email, while 10 percent experienced no change.

Swanson said about 15,000 post offices were considered nationally, and a survey was distributed to customers who would be potentially impacted by the closures.

“Closing the post office is a pretty sensitive issue,” Swanson said. “Even though people don’t use it as much as they used to, people still want a post office there.”

via Remote Alaska post offices face reduced hours | Local News – KTUU.com Anchorage.

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