Muddyites to organize, fight for post office
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Village of Muddy has rallied to save its post office in the past and judging by the community spirit at a meeting Monday at Muddy First Baptist Church the troops are ready to save it again.
Before Manager of Post Office Operations Area 5 Nancy Theobald concluded the meeting resident Tara Lowe volunteered to write letters for anyone in opposition to the closing and Village Administrator John Molinarolo was calling for residents to be ready to gather at Village Hall to organize.
"I volunteer to write as many letters as I can. I will write and write and write and write," Lowe said.
Theobald said the U.S. Postal Service is looking at possible closure of 3,700 post offices throughout the country, 153 in the Gateway District of central and Southern Illinois. The U.S. Postal Service is proposing to cut its number of processing centers in the country from 500 to less than 200. Carbondale is our area's processing center and it is on the list of proposed closures, Theobald said. That means our mail would be going to Evansville, Ind., to be bar coded and shipped.
Ending Saturday mail is another cost-cutting measure being proposed.
While Muddy residents appeared sympathetic to the plight of the USPS, several at the meeting shared the sentiment the loss of their post office and postmaster Kathy Rowlen would be devastating to Muddy and only generate a tiny savings for the USPS. Theobald agreed the closure of rural post offices would be only a "Band-Aid fix."
Usually there would be three alternatives for people to receive mail if the post office closes. One is curbside delivery to a mailbox, but since there are no rural carrier routes in Muddy that option is out.
The Muddy Post Office has 156 boxes available with 70 currently rented.
Another option is neighborhood delivery/collection box units with each unit consisting of 16 locked boxes for customers to receive and mail letters and two parcel boxes. The units are locked and mounted in concrete and letter carriers will handle all mail.
Another possibility is a village post office which designates an area of an existing business for people to pick up mail, buy stamps and other postal products. Theobald asked people offer suggestions in surveys they received in the mail as to possible businesses that could provide that service.
People also have the option of getting a post office box in another town.
Jenny Billman said it sounded to her the set up cost for a village post office could be counterintuitive when the post office closure is intended to save money. Theobald said the set up is a one-time cost and the proprietor is not paid for the service; the incentive is more customers coming to the business. The advantage to the USPS of any village post office is eliminating the cost of operating a service window and the cost of a lease if the USPS does not own the post office building.
Theobald said the three criteria for reviewing post offices for closure are distances no greater than 7 miles from the neighboring post office, being in remote areas and generating less than $25,000 annually. She said Muddy's Post Office in 2010 generated $23,223 up from $19,138 in 2007.
Several at the meeting brought up the above and beyond devotion to customers of postmaster Kathy Rowlen.
Keith Ratliff said he pays his bills through Money Orders that Rowlen takes care of for him and does not want to visit Harrisburg Post Office six or seven times a month for their clerks to do that.
Frances Bertino said Rowlen went out of her way to ship personal items to her when she was visiting Tampa, Fla., and lost her luggage. Others said Rowlen may make stamp home deliveries when her duty is over for the day.
Saline County E-911 Director Lt. Tracy Felty said the Saline County Sheriff's Office relies on the Muddy Post Office to deliver certified tax take notices. The sheriff's office may send out 250 a year at a cost of $8 each.
"Harrisburg said if we bring more than two to 'Take them somewhere else. We're too busy for you,'" Felty said.
At Muddy, Rowlen takes the time to fill the notices out and Felty said customer service should be the fourth criteria in determining elimination of post offices.
Norman Edgar said he is a stamp collector and Rowlen and the postmaster of Raleigh Post Office over the years have helped him to get first-day issue stamps. He said post offices in Harrisburg and Eldorado have not been able to help him get stamps for his collection.
"On the survey I will mail to you I will say, 'I will not go to Harrisburg Post Office," Edgar said.
John Parker said he knows the Muddy Post Office also gets business from outside Muddy.
"This isn't just Muddy's Post Office. People come from Harrisburg. They come here to buy stamps and buy money orders because it's a lot quicker to come out here and buy stamps than from its people from Harrisburg," Parker said.
Jenny Harrison runs a business out of her home that relies on the post office to mail CDs, computer drives and other items that require help of a person at a counter.
"We just really need a person in Muddy and not a box. I want my comments to show I don't want another option. I want Kathy," Harrison said.
The praise of Rowlen caused Molinarolo to declare a need for more advertising of Muddy's Post Office in order to attract more patrons and revenue.
Harrison said the post office is more than a place to ship and receive packages and letters; it also has a tourism aspect. She said she has lived within sight of the post office for four years and often sees people to stop at the old Muddy Post Office Museum and at the current post office to take photographs. The old post office had the distinction of smallest post office in the nation that included a lobby. The entire office was roughly the size of a large outhouse and sits across the street from the current post office.
"I see people all day long take pictures. This is not only the post office, but the museum will get lost unless someone can tell what we've got going on there," Harrison said.
The post office and museum are also near the new bike trail that extends the Tunnel Hill Bike Trail from Harrisburg through Muddy and into Eldorado.
Theobald encouraged people to include tourism elements of the post office in the surveys they return.
Theobald said her job was let people know what the post office is considering and tell them what they can do to try to save their post office. Top of her list is to write to legislators encouraging them to put pressure on the USPS to keep post offices open.
"I firmly believe in the squeaky wheel. Contact politicians," Theobald said.
Curt Coffee said the last time the USPS threatened to shut down Muddy's Post Office the village rallied, congressmen sent letters of support and he believes those old contacts and documents could come in handy for this fight.
"We've got something going if we can just pound and pound and pound," Coffee said.
Lowe asked for copies of the notes taken at the meeting so she could share them with others unable to attend. Theobald said those would be sent to the post office in a few days.
"It is exactly what we will forward to the district," Theobald said.
People who did not receive a survey and would like to make their comments known may pick up a survey at the post office and return them with comments by Oct. 27. Then a 60-day comment period will be opened. The USPS will then make a decision and there will be an appeal period.
Theobald said she expects a final decision on the fate of the post office by February.
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DeNeal receives e-mail at bdeneal@yourclearwave.com.</li>
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