Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 5, 1991 TAG: 9104050431
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: JUSTINE ELIAS/ CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
According to a survey sent out last month by Blacksburg Postmaster Doug Songer, the Postal Service is considering closing the downtown station for an hour daily - for instance, from noon to 1 p.m.
"We were trying to determine if there was a time when we could close for lunch," said Songer. "No matter what time we closed, we'd still be open at the main office at the University Mall."
Songer asked for comments from the public, and he got them: "We got 15-20 letters or notes from people who were pretty irate," he said.
None more so than Joyce Bowling of Blacksburg, who fired off a letter articulating what many people feel about the Postal Service:
"Not enough that we patrons . . . during critical midday hours are waiting in long lines for the services of one overworked clerk," Bowling wrote. "Not enough that the downtown post office window concludes its day at 4:30 p.m. instead of 5 p.m."
And, she complained, the price of stamps and post office boxes just went up for the second time in two years - with no measurable improvement in service.
"These people are in it for everything they can get," Bowling said in an interview.
To make things worse, Bowling said, the Postal Service returned her letter of complaint for insufficient postage. So she hand-delivered it. She had not stamped the letter when she mailed it because, she said, she thought letters to the postmaster didn't require postage.
Right now, Songer said, Blacksburg postal officials are pondering the survey results. "We don't want to cut our level of service, but there are times when we do have to make cutbacks," he said.
The University Mall office, which has more parking than the downtown station, is open 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Monday-Friday, with morning hours on Saturday. There are no plans to reduce service there, Songer said.
Closing the downtown station an hour daily would end the current system of staggering lunch breaks for clerks. That way, two clerks would be working the window at all times - except, of course, for the hour when the office would be closed.
"Whether that's a cut in service depends on who you talk to," said Songer.
But some residents and business people argue that the noon hour is the easiest time to get to the post office. And they say that long lines at that hour are evidence that the office is busiest then.
Audrey Graham, who works in a North Main Street law office, visits the downtown post office almost daily on her lunch hour. Picking up the mail from the post office box won't be a problem if the window is closed, Graham said.
"The line they have in here is terrible sometimes," she said. "I've waited as long as 45 minutes to mail a certified letter. At Christmastime, I've spent my entire lunch hour in here."
Tech graduate student Ivelina Velikova often drops by the downtown office at noon. "Usually this is the time you are free," she said. "But they do have to eat lunch some time."
Songer said changes in hours are not planned anytime soon. Roanoke postal officials must approve any changes. There also are other options, he said. "The public would prefer to have later hours rather than the early morning hours. So that's a possibility."
by CNB