University Park Residents Learn The Fate Of Their Post Office

University Park residents gathered at their community center to hear about the future of their post office.

University Park, Iowa – The Post Office is often the marker that says a town is still alive and on the map.

University Park residents gathered this past week at the University Park Community Center to hear from US Postal Service Regional Operations Manager Area 7 Denise Pace, on the future of the Post Office in University Park.

The office is currently open for 4 hours a day and going forward, the hours of operation will most likely be Monday thru Friday 8 am to 12 pm. On Saturdays, the hours will most likely be 8 am to 10:30 am. This means the office will be open the same as it has in the past, but with potentially different hours of operation.

The access to the post office on Saturday has not been reduced, nor has access to PO Boxes been changed nor reduced.

The minimum a post office would be open is 2 hours a day.

The USPS mailed out 187 surveys to University Park residents and 58 of them were returned. Of those that were returned, 53 of them asked for a realignment of hours. Four of them asked for different delivery options such as outdoor units.

The needs assessment of a post office happens every year. This allows the Postal Service to determine if hours of operation need to change, either being open more or less. This is based upon the volume of business happening at the local post office.

“We do everything we can not to close a post office,” said Pace. The US Postal Service has been looking to not close post offices unless the facility they currently occupy is unsafe for postal employees and customers. “We’re trying to stay in the communities, instead of closing post offices.”

This is part of the plan to maintain local post offices, which was outlined in May of 2012 and will be implemented by September of this year. If all has gone according to the USPS, they will be saving nearly half-a-billion dollars annually.