Postal Service proposes reduced hours for some Eastern Iowa locations

SWISHER, Iowa - Residents trickle in and out of the 15-year-old Swisher post office, retrieving mail from postal boxes and shipping packages.

None of them want this crucial link to close, and they said they think going along with a U.S. Postal Service plan to reduce hours is the best alternative.

'I can't imagine them closing the post office,” said Fred Shelton, who owns Shelton's Grocery and has lived in Swisher since the 1940s. 'It's better to have it later (than closing it), who goes that early in the morning anyway?”

Swisher and 35 other towns across the state would see post office hours cut - sometimes in half - if the 2012 POST Plan goes into effect. Officials will meet with residents in Swisher and in a handful of other Eastern Iowa communities next month to elicit feedback and discuss survey results.

Swisher's weekday hours would be reduced from 7.25 hours to 6 hours, avoiding the need to shut the office down.

The postal service needs to find savings to offset its loss in revenue, according to Stacy St. John, USPS consumer specialist for the Hawkeye Region, which includes Eastern Iowa. Previous efforts including eliminating Saturday service were beaten back, forcing the independent government agency to look elsewhere.

According to the Postal Service's most recent financial report, USPS ended the second quarter of the 2014 fiscal year with a $1.9 billon deficit. St. John said the losses are largely due to a congressional mandate that forces the service to prepay retiree health care benefits.

Swisher Librarian Laura Hoover said the reduction in hours would make it more difficult for her to ship and receive interlibrary loans, which exclusively use the post office. Hoover said she would rather see reduced hours versus losing the 'life line,” but even a reduction would have a negative effect.

'I want them to do nothing to it, 'she said. 'We're a small library, but I get whatever my patrons need through interlibrary loans, which come from all over the state.”

Businesses that need mail service the most will feel the crunch the most, said Cindy Trca, vice president of Five Star Shop Service, which specializes in shipping a variety of goods directly to farmers.

Trca said someone makes trips to the post office at least twice a day, which would be a lot longer if they were forced to go to Cedar Rapids or North Liberty.

St. John cautioned those who may be critical of the proposed changes, which remain a 'constant process” and said hours could increase or decrease depending on how much use a particular office may get.

The Ely post office, less than 15 minutes away from Swisher, also would be reduced to six hours.

Ely residents say they could stomach fewer hours, but want to avoid losing the convenience of having mail service right on the main drag.

'It's a small town so it's really convenient to have it so close by ... it really keeps things speedy,” said Sharon Sassen, who runs the Ely Chiropractic Center, which is right across the street from the post office.

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