Customers and other residents within the service footprint of the Upper Tract Post Office recently received a letter from the United States Postal Service. It served as official notice of a “discontinuance feasibility study” for the facility.
Local officials have worked to help the USPS find an alternative home for the facility, suggesting the Pendleton County Industrial Park as a possible option.
According to the Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute, officials with USPS “may initiate a feasibility study of a USPS-operated facility for possible discontinuance.
“Any decision to close or consolidate a USPS-operated retail facility may be effected only upon the consideration of certain factors,” shared the site, which then explained that “these include the effect on the community served; the effect on employees of the USPS-operated retail facility; compliance with government policy established by law that the Postal Service must provide a maximum degree of effective and regular postal services to rural areas, communities, and small towns where Post Offices are not self-sustaining; the economic savings to the Postal Service; and any other factors the Postal Service determines necessary.”
Mandatory procedures following that notice include a 60-day notice to the public. After the public comment period, “final determination to close or consolidate a USPS-operated retail facility must be made in writing and must include findings covering all the required considerations.”
After this step, the public has the right to respond. As the site explains, “within the first 30 days after the written determination is made available, any person regularly served by a Post Office subject to discontinuance may appeal the decision to the Postal Regulatory Commission.”
This includes residents, business owners, and operators of non profit and community service organizations.
The Postal Regulatory Commission may affirm the decision to close or return it to USPS, but cannot alter the determination itself.
The USPS can close a facility given one or more of the following circumstances: “A postmaster vacancy; Emergency suspension of the USPS-operated retail facility due to cancellation of a lease or rental agreement when no suitable alternate quarters are available in the community, a fire or natural disaster, irreparable damage when no suitable alternate quarters are available in the community, challenge to the sanctity of the mail, or similar reasons; Earned workload below the minimum established level for the lowest level RMPO; Insufficient customer demand, evidenced by declining or low volume, revenue, revenue units, local business activity, or local population trends; The availability of reasonable alternate access to postal services for the community served by the USPS-operated retail facility; or the incorporation of two communities into one or other special circumstances.”
It may not close a facility if there is “any claim that the continued operation of a building without handicapped modifications is inconsistent with the Architectural Barriers Act; The absence of running water or restroom facilities; compliance with Occupational and Safety Health Act, or the operation of the Post Office at a deficit.
The site also makes reference to a study conducted “when it is anticipated that a lease or rental agreement will be cancelled with no suitable alternate quarters available in the community.”
The letter to Upper Tract residents cited the reason as the termination of the lease of the facility as “no suitable alternate quarters available.”
Sherry Mongold of Seneca Rocks Regional Development Authority stated that they proposed the Pendleton County Industrial Park as an alternate option, but “the project has been put on hold until the USPS completes its study.”
In its letter to customers, the USPS rather unhelpfully pointed out that customers could access the Seneca Rocks facility at 6.48 miles away, Onego at 8.44 miles away, and Riverton at 8.74 miles away.
Since the Mountain State features mountains, those “as the crow flies” distances do not faithfully represent the true distance. Upper Tract to Seneca Rocks, according to Google Maps, is 34.1 miles and a 43-minute drive, to Onego is 37.1 miles and 47 minutes, and to Riverton is 25.1 miles and 34 minutes.
