The postal service has had money problems since Gore invented the internet but the virus has led to a big drop in mail. Many small rural post offices are facing closure. This article is about a tiny town of 300 about 20 miles from here.

'The ultimate equalizer': Loss of U.S. Postal Service due to COVID-19 would create hardship for Magic Valley communities

CASTLEFORD — It takes only about four people to fill the Castleford post office — an unassuming square building smack in the center of the town of fewer than 300 people. It’s not open long, just four hours from 9 a.m. to noon Monday to Friday, but it saves the residents of this tight-knit community the 20-minute drive to Buhl to send and receive mail and parcels.

But the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to change that. Low mail numbers and 13 years of consecutive losses totaling nearly $78 billion hit the self-funded government agency even before coronavirus, but the sharp plummeting of mail numbers during the pandemic means the postal service could run out of money by September.

This endangers nearly half a million jobs and millions more customers, especially those in rural communities who depend on the postal service for medications, important paperwork, ballots and checks.

“If (the community) did not have access to USPS it would make things difficult for them,” Kelsee Aagard, the postmaster for Castleford and Buhl, said. “If we were to shut down Castleford everyone in this community would have to drive to Buhl for their mail.”

Aagard is a 10-year employee of the U.S. Postal Service, who has been a carrier, a clerk and most recently a supervisor at the post office in Salt Lake City. She’s “done it all” and seen how the post office is vital to smaller communities, she said.

A 20-minute drive to Buhl or any larger community from a small town may not sound burdensome but can add up for those already traveling long distances for food, gas and other necessities. The need for mail delivery sometimes goes beyond picking up parcels in Buhl or Twin Falls for Aagard’s customers.

“People can’t always go to the (Veterans Affairs Office) in Boise all the time,” Aagard said. “They’re getting medications delivered that they would have to travel for.”

The United States Postal Service asked for an $89 billion bailout to cover lost revenue, update infrastructure and unrestricted borrowing authority, among other needs, which was met with mixed responses from Congress and chastisement from President Donald Trump.

“As Congress and the Administration take steps to support businesses and industries around the country,” Megan Brennan, the outgoing Postmaster General, said in a statement following the request. “It is imperative that they also take action to shore up the finances of the Postal Service, and enable us to continue to fulfill our indispensable role during the pandemic, and to play an effective role in the nation’s economic recovery.”

The statement also said that the Postal Service faces a net operating loss of more than $22 billion over the next 18 months and $54 billion in long-term losses.

The president threatened to veto the entire $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act – also known as the Cares Act – in emergency funding if it contained relief for the Postal Service. The package originally contained a $13 billion grant for the Postal Service, which has since changed to a $10 billion loan from the Treasury Department that is pending approval.

President Trump said the loan would not be approved unless the Postal Service raised its shipping prices for big shippers like Amazon by about four times the current rate.

While support for the president’s plan is generally divided along party lines, Idaho lawmakers have yet to comment on the issue. Idaho State Sen. Bert Brackett, who lives 45 minutes outside of Rogerson, said that his constituents have “bigger things to worry about,” but a reduction in mail service would put a strain on the communities he represents.

“We, for the most part, have accepted it and worked with it,” Brackett said of his community receiving mail only three times a week. “(Losing service) would worry us a lot. That would bring such a hardship to this community.”

For Twin Falls County’s southernmost communities, the closest post office is in Jackpot, Nevada, as opposed to Twin Falls, which is 60 miles away.

Services like the United Parcel Service and FedEx don’t often serve communities like Three Creek or Castleford and rely on the local post office to provide “last mile service” for packages mailed through such private services to reach their final destination. UPS leaves about 75 packages a day with the Buhl post office to reach smaller surrounding communities, Aagard said.

The Postal Service Western Area, which services Idaho, Utah, Nevada and 11 other states, could not comment on the status of the federal loan or the potential fate of the Postal Service, but it maintained that it is a vital service for millions of Americans.

“When you spread a map out in front of you and look at all those dots, we serve every one of them,” David Rupert, manger of strategic communications for the Western Area, said in a phone interview. “We connect America. We are the ultimate equalizer.”

“Whether you’re urban, suburban, rural, unincorporated, rich or poor, everyone gets the same great service.”

The future of the post office
Resident mail boxes wait to be accessed Thursday, May 21, 2020, at the United States Post Office in Castleford. Private shippers like UPS and FedEx don't go to places like Castleford, so the Postal Service acts as a connector between delivery services and residents. Buhl post office receives about 75 packages a day from private shippers to be delivered to the surrounding areas.

A local post office can also serve as a community center for residents who may not often see each other in areas where homes are spread out. Aagard said customers at the Castleford office meet and “don’t want to leave” when they see a familiar face. Each year hundreds of postal workers alert authorities to danger, including spotting fires on their routes and finding injured people in their homes when carriers notice mail piling up, Rupert said.

“(Our clerk in Castleford), she’s a member of this community,” Aagard said. “She knows what’s going on and how to help out.”

While there may always be a way to receive mail and packages, Rupert said that only the extensive connectivity the Postal Service offers is unmatched.

“For the price of a stamp, for two quarters and a nickel, you can reach every dot on that map,” he said. “And that’s something only we can provide.”

It reads like propoganda put out by the postal service. Plenty of small post offices in this state are just a corner of a small store, and run by the same person by contract. Postal service also has rural routes for delivery to farms and ranches, some much farther than 20 miles from town; the carriers are also on contract. No reason "everyone" would wind up driving to the other town.

Our Post Office is 30 miles away in a town of 85 people, next one is 65 miles away in a town of 6000. Rio7

Ploy to get more money.

Yeah, pretty blatant, as if you need a local post office to get your VA meds in your mailbox.

Let’s get realistic. In this day and age, six day a week mail is plumb retarded. Three times a week is just fine.

I understand some of you may lose a sweet gig, sorry. The times, they are-a-changing.

That'll make the girls cry

Most rural POs could easily close and no one would know the difference. The PO could be bulldozed and replaced with a wall of mail boxes as seen at many subdivisions. Or even multiple community mail box centers each one closer to the actual people served than the PO was.

With the reduction in mail volume, the larger city POs can easily handle the work load which has traditionally been carried by the small town facilities.

Our rural town of 1200 could easily do without a PO. The three towns of this county could be served by one PO at the County Seat, or actually, even more efficiently from a larger town in a county to our North or South.

The majority of mail in this county is handled by Rural Delivery. Even most town dwellers have mail boxes at their home or business. Very few use PO boxes.

Those delivery vehicles can just as easily be loaded at a central hub in a neighboring town. Or vans could distribute the contents of several rural carriers to their individual vehicles.

I see no reduction in service necessary. But a major reorganization is definitely overdue. The PO is doing 21'st century delivery duties with 19'th century logistics.

Large packages to ship or receive? Hand them to the delivery driver or pick them up from the carrier just like you do with UPS.

It finally closed, but I knew of a small post office in west central Ks in a town of less than 20. Next town over was about 1500 people and 14 miles away. It’s a gross waste of money to keep these small post offices open. As someone above said, times are changing.

A complicated issue. Union is a big part of it, but rarely mentioned. Probably the best thing in the long run would be to dump the Union, and sell the USPS to a private company

Rural delivery is what is needed.

Not the physical PO.

There’s a few around here that keep very limited hours.

Would good does a PO do for someone that works if it’s only
Open a few hours during the day. And close at 4:30.

The changes and cut backs need to start in D.C., not the local P.O.

Yep very limited. Our PO is open from 8-11:30 Mon-Fri. 8-10 on Sat.

USPS is a waste of money, we have 6 stand alone county post offices within a 15 mile radius of the house. And we have to drive 15 miles just to dump the garbage and 25 miles to the closest hospital.

One of the most poorly ran businesses in the US. Unions have ran it in the ground along with poor management. Any other business would have already shut down.

They need reorganized and fat trimmed from top to bottom.

PO tried 8 years ago to close the Office in my town that services 250 people....everybody was up in arms that they would need to drive 18 miles to the nearest PO they acted like they would need to do it everyday PO Boxes are required....myself I wanted it closed it cost $14,000 a month to keep it open....ended up not closing reduced hours 4 hours M-F 2 hours Sat. lobby for PO Boxes 6am-5:30 pm....I only check PO Box one a month just junk mail anyways....

Have you heard the breathless PAC radio ads opposing the increase in postal rates?

They make it sound like the World is going to end if the USPS charges anywhere near the real cost to ship packages.

Actually mail could be delivered once or twice a week max and it would be fine. don't need Saturday delivery for sure. Their volume is way down why are they still using the same number of people to deliver. Really for most people once every two weeks.

The PO is actually in the constitution, and power to establish and regulate it given to congress.

That is the biggest problem with the post office. They suck at running anything resembling business.

One of the few relatively useful orgs mandated by the us const.

Shouldn’t I have a right against spam junk mail?

Its akin to a free email account

Unfortunately, the USPS can not close a PO on its' own, even if it makes sense. It takes Congressional approval (due to Congress' oversight role). Congressional members want to ensure that there's a PO in every town imaginable. 15 years ago, the USPS proposed closing a PO in a small eastern West Virginia town since it was loosing money and it was only 18 miles to the next PO (in Virginia). There were many howls of protest and the local Congressman stepped in - this PO is still operating at a loss. This instance is interesting since many of the local residents regularly drive to the larger town to shop anyway.

In the private sector, a company will identify non-profitable operations and trim them for the good of the company.

see: https://constitutioncenter.org/blog...eliveries-without-congressional-approval

This. . . . . we could and should close about 2 out of 3 rural post offices in my area. Save a ton of money and we wouldn't see even a hint of a drop in service.