ENID — Several Enid-area post offices are under review by the U.S. Postal Service and may be closed as a cost-cutting measure.

Post offices under review in the area include Amorita, Bison, Carrier, Dacoma, Fairmont, Fay, Goltry, Greenfield, Hillsdale, Hunter, Isabella, Loyal, Mutual, Orlando and Sharon.

The U.S. Postal Service is considering closing more than one in 10 of its retail outlets and is studying 3,653 local offices, branches and stations for possible closure. Many of those may be replaced by what are called Village Post Offices, where postal services are offered in local stores, libraries or government offices.

The postal service operates 31,871 retail outlets across the country, down from 38,000 a decade ago. The sharp decline came as a result of the increased use of e-mail for first class mail. The service lost $8 billion last year.

Phil Luginbill, mayor of Fairmont, said closing his town’s post office would be devastating for the small community, but would not comment further. The postmaster also refused to comment.

Coming under review does not mean the office will close. The post office announced in January it was reviewing 1,400 offices for closing and so far 280 have been closed and 200 finished the review process and will remain open. Of the 1,400 offices announced for review in January, 620 still are in the review process and 300 will move to the new review list.

Once an office is selected for a review, people served by that office will have 60 days to file their comments. If an office is to be closed, they will be able to appeal to the independent Postal Regulatory Commission.

“With the United States Postal Service anticipating a $6.4 billion deficit this year, I am not surprised they are looking systemwide at what it cost to provide services,” said U.S. Rep. Frank Lucas, who represents Oklahoma’s 3rd Congressional District. “Being raised in a rural community, I understand how important a local post office is to the entire community. In working through government oversight, it is my hope and encouragement that whatever necessary steps are taken to increase efficiency ... will not affect the important services USPS provides in rural America.”

Bert Mackie of Enid, a former postal governor, said the postal service will look at each of the post offices to determine what type of income it brings in.

“Most of the small ones don’t bring in enough to pay the employees and keep the lights on,” he said. “It’s a very difficult challenge to close a post office because everyone in the community identifies with the post office and one of the most popular people in town is the postmaster or postmistress.”

To community residents, closing a post office is like closing a school. However, the post office is in a position where it needs to do everything possible to cut costs, Mackie said. He said the communities will continue to receive their mail because they will move the service to a local business or government office.

“They sometimes set up offices where they can get mail and have an allotted post person come to the community each day,” Mackie said.

Smaller post offices lease space, but larger ones like Enid own their facilities. Mackie said there are some people who have a chain of postal leases across the United States because it is a good rental rate and payments always are on time.

Mackie last served as a postal governor in 1998. There are nine in the United States, appointed by the president.

“In America, the U.S. Postal System has been a major factor in making the United States one of the greatest countries on earth,” Mackie said. “They give good mail service to every man, woman and child in the U.S. The Havasu Indians at the bottom of the Grand  Canyon receive mail by pack mule several times a week. Also, there are more than 100 communities in northern Alaska where there are no roads going to them and the postal system flies the mail in by bush plane, and often their food. Every man, woman and child has access to good postal delivery.”

Over the past four years, the U.S. Postal Service, which does not receive tax funds for its operations, has cut its staff by about 130,000 and reduced costs by $12 billion in an effort to cope with the loss of first-class mail to the Internet and the decline in advertising mail caused by the recession. For example, about half of all bill payments are made by Internet now, up from 5 percent a decade ago.

Postal officials also have sought permission from Congress to reduce mail delivery to five days a week and to ease the requirement they pay $5.5 billion annually into a fund to pre-pay future retiree medical benefits.



The Associated Press contributed to this story.