Some post offices in region may be closed

Fifteen postal branches and stations in Philadelphia may be closed or consolidated as part of a national effort to offset dramatic declines in mail revenue for the U.S. Postal Service.

The branch in Bridgeport, a worn-down industrial town in Montgomery County, and a branch in Camden, New Jersey's poorest city, also are being considered for the chopping block, as are two branches of the Trenton post office.

Bridgeport Mayor Jerry Nicola said many of the town's elderly residents, who now walk to the post office, would have to cross the Schuylkill to get to post offices in Norristown or Conshohocken.

"Now where are they going to walk - over to Norristown?" Nicola asked. "They [the Postal Service] are making it harder. They raise the stamps and raise this and raise that, and they cut back on other things. A little community like Bridgeport, 6,000 people, and they move everything away."

Losing its post office would diminish his town's identity at a time when several proposed housing and commercial developments could revitalize the area, Nicola said.

Jim Ferris, 57, who lives in Bridgeport and said he has used the local station five or six times a month for 28 years, was succinct. "This stinks," he said. "This is typical government."

Bridgeport and the other branches are among 677 the U.S. Postal Service is considering for closure or consolidation. The list became public after it was given to Congress on Thursday.

On Tuesday the Government Accountability Office added the Postal Service to its list of federal agencies in need of an urgent overhaul.

The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, estimated that the Postal Service would end the fiscal year with a net loss of $7 billion and would continue to lose that much in fiscal year 2010.

The losses have been building as people rely more on e-mail and other alternatives to mail. The recession has accelerated those losses.

"While our volume is declining, at the same time we're seeing our walk-in business also declining dramatically," said Cathy Yarosky, a Philadelphia-area spokeswoman for the Postal Service.

About a third of the agency's business is now conducted by alternative means, including its Web site, USPS.com, Yarosky said.

The downsizing has already begun. The Yeadon postal branch in Delaware County is not on the list but has already been slated for closure, Yarosky said.

Among the facilities in Philadelphia that may close are the branch at 13th and Market Streets and the branch inside 30th Street Station. Many of the other locations are in North Philadelphia and the Northeast.

At the postal store at Frankford and Cottman Avenues, Daphney Calixte, 24, lamented the impact a closure would have on seniors in the Holmesburg neighborhood.

"There are a lot of elderly folks," she said. "They're not computer-literate."

The same sentiment was echoed at the Castle Station Post Office at 1713 S. Broad St.

"I don't have a car," said area resident Brenda Anderson, 61. "We need this post office, especially for the senior citizens."

In Olney, Mantu Freeman, 36, said he was baffled as to why the government would consider closing the postal station at the One & Olney Square shopping center.

"It's always packed in here - always," he said.

And that's why Paul Martin, 54, who lives a block away, usually goes to a postal branch on Rising Sun Avenue.

"The only reason I'm here today is because I have to pick up certified mail," Martin said.

If there were more workers seeing to customers, the office would be more tolerable, he said, but usually there are only one or two people working the window. That was the case yesterday, as people waited more than 25 minutes to be helped.

The branch at 905 N. Broad St. sits alongside midsize businesses, a car dealership, a school, auto-repair shops, and a hair salon. A sales associate yesterday described the clientele as mostly older. One of the closest branches is about a mile away, at Seventh and Thompson Streets.

For Peter Sims, 25, a customer who lives right across the street, that distance might be too much to handle. "It's not that far, but its far enough," he said.

The GAO report offered a series of recommendations that includes reducing the number of retail postal facilities and increasing the use of lower-cost alternatives such as the Internet.

The Postal Service is the largest civilian federal agency, with 727,000 employees operating in 38,000 facilities.

The agency faces massive shortfalls despite already making cuts to its staff, and in May raising the price of a first-class stamp by two cents.