The United State Post Office is putting its plan to close thousands of rural post offices on hold for now. The office had announced theproposed closures over the summer.
The USPS has considered everything from eliminating Saturday mail delivery to shutting down thousands of rural post offices to save money. It’s this last proposal that sparked protest from small communities across Colorado.
“I hope they’re taking this opportunity to look introspectively into their own operations to make more meaningful directives instead of cutting into rural America,” said Dave Long, a Weld County Commissioner and resident of the Northern Colorado town of New Raymer, which was on the closure list.
KUNC visited New Raymer this past summer to learn how the proposed closure would impact the town of 100. Long said he was concerned about how it would impact businesses in the area.
“It really creates a problem in rural America because a lot more people are running home businesses through the mail,” he said.
Democratic Senator Michael Bennet announced the “time out” in a press release late today. The news comes at a time when the U.S. Post Office is losing money—it recently reported a deficit of $5.1 billion over the past year.
