Oysterville Post Boxes

     It’s always nice to get confirmation that you are right.  Even when you were totally confident of your facts in the first place, learning that some authority figure agrees with you makes for a satisfying feeling – especially when that affirmation is made publicly.  So it was with great delight that I read this headline in a recent Oregonian:  U.S. Postal Service: Panel finds flaws in closure process.
     Here in Oysterville there has never been a question that the process has been flawed.  We’ve known that since way back in October when we first received copies of the report recommending closure of our little post office.  For starters, it was suggested that we could go to Bay Center, 6.7 miles across Willapa Bay, to get our mail.  Furthermore, the report stated that there was no historic significance to our post office which, of course, includes service to the Oysterville National Historic District and is one of the oldest post offices in the state.
     There were many other errors of fact and logic in the report.  We Oysterville postal patrons crowded into the church for a meeting with the Post Office District Manager from Portland and told him of our concerns.  He remained neutral throughout the evening but every complaint was noted.
     Similar meetings were held throughout the United States and, presumably, the patrons from all 3,654 post offices that are scheduled for possible closing registered their concerns just as we did.  Whether or not the data gathered at these meetings has been taken into consideration yet is unclear.  However, as a next step in the closure process, postal officials were required by law to ask for a formal opinion by the Postal Regulatory Commission on the closure plan.
     As reported in the Oregonian:  The U.S. Postal Service relied on questionable data to identify more than 3,600 post offices and other retail operations to study for closure…  In many cases the selection process ignored whether an alternate post office was nearby and which closures would reduce costs the most, and it lacked sufficient data and analysis to make the best decisions, the Postal Regulatory Commission said,  “We certainly challenge their methodology…”
     Unfortunately, the opinion of the regulators is not binding but, it carries weight with Congress, which has questioned whether so many closures are necessary…  Meanwhile, the Postal Service agreed last month to delay the proposed closures until spring in the hope that pending legislation will help shore up their finances…
     While we all wait, I wonder if “they” can hear the chorus from Oysterville: “We told you so!  We told you so!  We told you so!”