Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
THE U.S. Postal Service is seeking input from customers of the Montreal, Wis., Post Office regarding future changes in services. The USPS is considering a few different options including a reduction in the number of operating hours at the branch or closing the location entirely.
MONTREAL, Wis. - The Montreal Post Office is one of 13,000 small branch offices throughout the nation that may have its hours of operation reduced under the U.S. Postal Service's "POST Plan."
The plan was introduced in 2012 to help the USPS restructure its service network and save costs.
The USPS has sent out letters and surveys to Montreal residents asking for community input to help determine the best method for providing services to the community.
According to the letter sent to customers written by Rebecca Belter, POST Plan coordinator, the Montreal Post Office could eventually close if there is a strong preference, more than 60 percent, to do so.
However, in the absence of a strong preference to establish one of the alternative options presented in the survey, USPS officials intend to reduce the office's window service hours from eight to four each weekday.
The four alternatives included in the survey are:
-Keeping the office open, but realigning the weekday window service hours. Current Saturday hours would not change and access to mailboxes will remain the same.
-Conduct discontinuance study for the office and provide roadside mailbox delivery. Retail and delivery service would be provided through a rural carrier. Some customers may see changes in delivery locations, as delivery points and clustered mailbox locations would be established.
-Conduct discontinuance study and find alternate location for office, usually at a local business. The alternate location would offer stamps and flat rate products with wider hours of service than what the local PO may offer.
-Conduct discontinuance study and provide P.O. Box service via another nearby Post Office.
The USPS will hold a meeting at the Montreal City Hall at 2:30 p.m. on Aug. 7 to discuss the POST Plan and its impact on the Montreal office.
Results of the survey will be presented and local management will answer questions.
There will be no decisions made until after the meeting is held so that officials can get as much input from the community as possible.
