(Columbus KY October 14, 2011) – As yet another brilliant sunset formed over the historical river town located on the Mississippi River, another more powerful and black cloud ripped through the community. This black cloud transformed itself in the image and being of the United States Postal Service. Its local name was Christopher Carroll, Post Office Operations. The little town of Columbus had been selected by the US Postal Service to be terminated.

On this night, Carroll came to Columbus to conduct a public hearing on the question of why Columbus should lose its post office. As is the case in so many government and semi-government contractor’s meetings, facts are the foundation for decisions and budget appropriations, Carroll came to this meeting well prepared with his facts.

Clutching several sheets of data and facts, Carroll unloaded upon the unsuspecting citizens a serious case of future shock as he spoke hard fact after hard fact:
 
 1. The Post Office currently has 37,000 post offices.
 2. 35,000 of these are like Columbus
 3. 2,000 of the base number are contract postal units.

His case was that in these troubled times, the Postal Service can no longer afford the same number of retail outlets, He also stressed how the US economic recession has forced the Postal Service to strongly consider the closing of regional distribution and processing centers. He told the audience that there are 500 process and distributing plants. The current plan calls for 252 of these regional centers to be closed. He informed the crowd of plans to close the Paducah regional center as well as the Lexington Kentucky center and the Cincinnati regional processing center.

Editor’s Note: We know the mail at Paducah’s distribution center will be shifted to Evansville and the Lexington processing center will be moved to Knoxville, Tennessee.

Carroll stressed that the major factors in their operational plans for the future were: 1) the high cost of gas, 2) a large workforce facing retirement 3) declining revenue from dropping sales of their products and services and 4) inability to compete as a private company.

Carroll then explained that there are plans to close 175 Kentucky post offices. Each post office will be evaluated on several factors, including 1) distance to the next post office, 2) income of more than $27,000 last year, 3) the historical importance of the site 4) no excess social or governmental burden by closing.

After listening to Carroll’s facts for thirty five minutes, the 81 residents of Columbus in attendance were allowed time to voice their concerns. Columbus has 103 homes on its water system with three homes on wells. The post office has 93 mail boxes rented.

Columbus City Clerk Dori Todd pointed out to Mr. Carroll that the Post Office had incorrect information on the legal status of the city. Columbus is an incorporated city under Kentucky law. The Post Office had it listed as unincorporated.  Todd stressed the fact that the community was showing some life in its ability to attract new jobs and residents. If the post office is to close, then community drive and economic development won’t happen. The town will become a ghost town.

At this point, Carroll offered two alternatives to having the post office in Columbus: a rural carrier and a “postal center”.  Under this plan, rural carriers would become rolling post offices. They would create money orders, sell stamps and supply other postal products.

When a concern was expressed that carrying money would not be safe for the carrier, Mr. Carroll gave little attention to the concern. The audience, aware that local carriers in this area tend to be women, murmured and groaned.

All told, around twelve people made their voices heard on this night at the Columbus Baptist Church. Cindy Lynch, Columbus Belmont State Park manager told Carroll that campers use the local post office as does Park employees for official business.

The largest employer in Hickman County, Ingram Barge, sent a representative who told Carroll that his company and his employees use the local post office. Others spoke of the elderly and disabled who find it difficult to go to Arlington Post Office, six miles away. One person asked if the Arlington Post Office would be on the list to close. Carroll said it is not on this year’s list.

Just before time for the public hearing was set to expire, the question was asked “What if, on a purely theoretical basis, the community organizes a massive write in campaign and public awareness media project? Would that help?”

Carroll seemed taken aback by the question. He paused for a second then said, “At my last two public hearings in Ballard County, the largest number that showed up was three. Yes, we would most definitely look at the number of people who would want to communicate to us the value of this post office or any other post office. The final decision has not been made.”

Finally, after an hour and a half, hope made an appearance in the room. The last question showed the citizens of Columbus a path to take if they truly want to fight for their post office.

Support for the post office and information on how the closing will affect the community and the service should be sent to:

Tim Reynolds
P. O. Box 31000
Louisville KY