Thursday, July 17, 2003

Letter to the Editor
The Washington Times

I believe your article of Thursday, July 17, in the Business section entitled "Closings Eyed for Village Post Offices" will mislead your readers into believing the President's Commission on the Postal Service's report of July 16, 2003, targeted the closing of rural post offices. I attended this meeting and the emphasis in the report made reference to consolidating mail processing centers and not rural post offices. There is currently a process in place that addresses the closing of post offices and, while the Commission may recommend to modify that policy, your headline was out of context.

As President of the National League of Postmasters, I provided both written and oral testimony to the Commission. The following comments, directly relating to small post offices, are from my testimony given in April in Los Angeles. I hope this will help clarify, to your readers, the actual facts relating to those "village post offices" your article spoke about.

• The National League of Postmasters wants to focus on the best utilization of our current network of over 26,000 post offices, of which 62 percent comprises small post office operations located in rural America.
  
  
• The League of Postmasters is hopeful that this Commission will, as it is mandated, look to improve the Postal Service and its bottom line, but not neglect to identify the need to continue universal service and access to a post office. While delivery of letters, parcels and advertising mail is our core business, we feel there is so much more we can do. Our network of post offices provides a unique opportunity to expand non-postal services at our facilities while utilizing the infrastructure we have. We take pride in serving our customers, and we need to realize our full potential.
  
  
• Rural and inter city post offices are often perceived as money losers, but this is not a true picture. While the postage revenue is collected where the mailer enters the mail into our system, the cost of delivering the mail is borne by the post office that ultimately delivers the piece. To say that over half of the post offices lose money is not a fair analysis.
  
  
• Robert Cohen, Director, Office of Rates, Analysis and Planning, testified before this Commission on Feb. 20, 2003, in Washington, DC. He stated: The cost of universal service is a surprisingly small portion of the Postal Service's $70 billion budget. The cost of the 10,000 smallest post offices was $567 million. [Less than 2 percent of the total budget!]
  
  
• Rural customers are not second-class citizens; they deserve access to postal services that those in metropolitan areas enjoy. At the beginning of the 21st century, rural America comprises 2,305 counties, contains 80 percent of the nation's land and is home to 56 million people. A past inquiry initiated by the Postal Rate Commission reported that rural Americans are 26 percent of the population, and make up 34 percent of Americans with incomes below the official poverty line. The study also noted that small towns have the highest concentrations of elderly people. We believe post offices fulfill a need for this segment of the population as well as provide invaluable service to these customers that cannot be measured in dollars. We believe post offices must be measured by the service they provide, and not be judged solely on financial considerations."

Sincerely,
Steve D. LeNoir
National President
National League of Postmasters
1023 No. Royal Street, Alexandria, VA 22314
(703) 548-5922