Save the Collinwood Post Office

The Collinwood post office is one of 3,653 post offices being considered to be closed by the Postal Service, which has lost $5.7 billion dollars this year.  The Postal Service operates over 38,000 facilities nationwide, and has seen a decline of 43 billion pieces of mail, mainly because of electronic communications. 

Our community needs the Collinwood post office.  It was the first post office built in Collinwood.  It serves a wide population area, many who have lived here all their lives, and who don't have access to another facility.  Instead of closing post offices, the Postal System to should meet with each community and find out which services they need the most, and perhaps reduce other services.  Eliminating post offices will not guarantee more revenue.  Reducing prices and offering convenience is a better solution.

Closing the post office will cause difficulties for residents and local business, who buy stamps and mail packages.  It will also be detrimental to people who have post office boxes.  The Postal Service will loose customers because more people will start using electronic communications, rather than travel out of their way to other locations.   And, residents will find it easier to start using other currier services.

Belinda Prinz, Communications Director for Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge who represents the 11th District of Ohio, said "the Congresswoman is very concerned about the process and the guidelines used to determine which post offices survive..."  because they are not considering how it will adversely affect the public.  The Congresswoman also opposes the closing of post offices, because it would break USPS labor agreements.

If you want to save the Collinwood Post Office, "Organize.  Make your collective voices known.  The Congresswoman would be happy to forward a bundle of letters and comments written by people in the community...to postal authorities," said Prinz.

Marcia L. Fudge said: “I want to ensure that post office closings will not disproportionately harm the elderly and low-income residents of our community and across the nation.  These are the people who are least able to utilize online resources or other means, and let's not forget that closing any post offices will mean job losses." Up to 220,000 jobs will be lost by 2015.  This will cause more displaced workers, and affect the economy.

Because the Congresswoman is concerned about the closing of "the Collinwood branch as well as 9 others throughout the 11th district she represents, she has introduced a bill along with Congressman Gwen Moore of Wisconsin...” (called) the Fair and Equitable Postal Services Act, H.R.2956. 

This bill would require the Postal Service to:

 "...Consider the impact (on the community) in deciding which facilities to close." And "require the Postal Service to specifically consider...(how a closing) would decrease access to postal or non-postal services for  elderly individuals, economically disadvantaged individuals, individuals with limited mobility, or individuals without reliable transportation or access to the internet..."

If the closing would result in unreasonable burdens, the Postal Service would be prevented from closing that facility. 

Another thing to consider is that Collinwood is only serviced by two RTA bus lines, and it is not known if these routes will access other remaining post offices.

If you are concerned about saving the Collinwood post office, contact Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge (address listed below), and let her know how the closing will affect your family and neighborhood.

Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge                                                                                                                                                  1019 Longworth House Office Building                                                                                                                              Washington, D.C. 20515                                                                                                                                                                Phone: (202) 225-7032                                                                                                                                                                    Fax: (202) 225-1339