East Iowa towns fear loss of post offices

 When Kris Doll's daughter in Tennessee sends her a package via UPS, the big brown trucks don't come to her farm to deliver it. The box is dropped instead at the Onslow Post Office, about four miles south.

“I still hand-write letters to my friends that I know from college,” said Doll, 57.

So when Onslow turned up on the U.S. Postal Service's list of 3,700 post offices that may be closed - the news release called it “optimizing (the) retail network” - Doll and her neighbors got active.

“We cannot bring new business into the community, we cannot bring new people into the community, unless we have this post office,” said Curtis Thornhill, 64, mayor-elect of the Jones County town of 197 people about 40 miles northeast of Cedar Rapids.

The Save Our Onslow Post Office Committee has met with staff from Rep. Bruce Braley, D, Iowa, and Sens. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and mailed thick binders of information, photos and residents' testimonials to other members of Congress and to postal officials. Streets in town are dotted with campaign-style lawn signs, and a larger version is affixed just below the Welcome to Onslow sign.

Similar efforts are under way in many of the more two dozen Eastern Iowa communities on the postal service's list, which includes 187 in the state.

“We hope to keep our community going,” said Dundee Mayor Barb Robinson. “You take our post office, what's next?”

There's no rescue effort yet in Troy Mills, whose post office is also on the list.

“I really hate to say it but I can't blame them,” said Gary Peiffer, owner of Gary's Auto Parts in the unincorporated town in northern Linn County. “You really can't pay someone to be up there 40 hours a week.”

The Postal Service receives no taxpayer support, and its entire operating shortfall can be attributed to a 2006 law requiring it to prepay 75 years of retiree health benefits over 10 years. The next $5.5 billion payment is due Dec. 16.

“It's like trying to pay a 30-year mortgage off in five years,” said Richard Watkins, Postal Service spokesman in Kansas City, Mo..

To meet that and other obligations in the face of declining mail volume, the service has cut more than $12 billion the past four years, Watkins said. That includes cutting 115,000 jobs, closing more than a dozen district offices and consolidating more than 21,000 carrier routes.

“We're looking at all of those areas, not just picking on rural post offices,” said Watkins, who said a decision on post office closings won't be made until after the holidays.

Watkins notes Iowa, with about 1 percent of the nation's population, has 897 post offices - about 3 percent of 31,000 nationwide. With more customers buying stamps online and shipping packages from grocery stores, pharmacies and other non-traditional locations, post offices recorded 200 million fewer visits the past five years, Watkins said.

“We understand these have been an integral part of these communities, not just for decades but for over a century,” said Watkins. “What worked in 1911, when we had twice as many post offices as we have now, does not make sense in 2011, and certainly does not make sense given there's a volume drop.”

Still, “it's something that's needed,” said Dean Holerud, 77, Onslow's mayor until Thornhill takes office Jan. 2. “We lose the post office, we might as well say goodbye, Onslow.”

But Dave Swenson, adjunct lecturer at the University of Iowa's School of Urban and Regional Planning and a research scientist at Iowa State University, said there's usually nothing next.

“If you're now at the point of losing your post office, the economic impact has already happened,” said Swenson. “You're not looking at something that's going to cause your decline, you're looking at a symptom. Rural communities are going to have to adjust.”

To Onslow residents, the post office is key to keeping what they still have. They tick off what they've lost the past several years: the elementary school - Onslow grade schoolers attend school in Wyoming, three miles south - the Farm Service outlet, and the local gas station/convenience store.

There have been success stories. Rowley residents rallied after the postal service closed the post office in the Buchanan County town in 2006 due to a mold problem, with no intention of reopening.

“They formed a great committee,” said Mayor Rita Knutson. “Any suggestions they had, we followed through with it, and they accomplished it.”

A committee member bought the post office building himself and rehabilitated it. Rowley's post office reopened the day after Christmas 2006.

Watkins said the postal service discourages such an approach now. Instead, he said small towns should consider the service's new Village Post Office option. Village Post Offices would be operated by local businesses such as pharmacies, or grocery stores - Onslow has neither - and offer stamps, boxes and flat-rate packaging.