THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 7, 1996 TAG: 9603070483
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY CATHERINE KOZAK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: STUMPY POINT LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
Postal officials are nearing formal approval of a plan they believe will keep the post office open in this fishing village founded two centuries ago.
Residents likely will be able to get their stamps and mail their packages from the same quaint white frame building with the authentic copper post boxes and old-fashioned front porch.
The plan, officials say, would leave the facility open about the same number of hours and provide the same services while cutting costs.
A notice posted last month at Stumpy Point's post office on Bayview Boulevard is the last step in the review process before the proposal is sent up after April 1 to Washington, D.C.
``The proposal is a synopsis of all we have done on the evaluation,'' said Leandra Slate, Greensboro district post office review coordinator. ``Hopefully, in the community meetings and questionnaires, we've answered their concerns.''
After the postal service determined that Stumpy Point was steadily losing revenue, it decided the facility would have to close, consolidate or be sub-contracted to a community business. After two years of soliciting community response, mail officials proposed a solution: The current acting postmaster would be replaced by a rural route carrier, resulting in present post office box fees dropping to $2 a year from $8 to $24 a year.
Manteo Post Office is sending clerk Carolee Tillett on the 22-mile trek to Stumpy Point, where she provides window service for customers from 10 a.m. to noon six days a week. If the proposal is accepted in Washington, Tillett's role at the post office would be replaced by a postal carrier who does the Manns Harbor route.
Vivian Berscak, postmaster at Manteo, said she hadn't heard any feedback from Stumpy Point folk since the last town meeting about a year ago, but she said she knows residents were concerned about more than loss of services.
``The problem is that the post office is the last community gathering place,'' Berscak said.
Stumpy Point's service window until recent years was open eight hours a day. Then it was cut to six hours. Then two.
But, revenue crunch or not, the postal service has to continue to meet the needs of the community, Slate said. The proposed plan has taken those needs into account, she added.
``What we are trying to do is maintain a postal presence and deliver the mail,'' Slate said. ``We have to maintain regular and effective service to every customer.''
Slate added that in the plan they decided on, money will be saved but not at a detriment to the community. ``It will make our operation more efficient and deliver the same service in a more economic fashion.''
At a meeting last April, officials told residents that the plan would save the postal service $17,000 annually. Townspeople first expected the fate of the post office to be decided in May 1994. Then, last April, they were told it could be up to another year before Washington gives its go-ahead to the proposal.
But now Slate said it will probably be an additional six to eight months before U.S Postal Service officials decide if the proposed money-saving measure is acceptable. If not, Stumpy Point's fate would again be in question. ILLUSTRATION: DREW C. WILSON
The Virginian-Pilot
Add one more thing that won't slow the mail from its appointed
rounds - the closing of the Stumpy Point post office.
by CNB