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Postal official: Clifton retail counter will remain open though national cuts continue
Summary
Postal District Manager Mike Furey told the Clifton Town Council the Postal Service is running large national losses and is studying reduced hours and consolidation; he said Clifton was not under consideration for closure and that carriers were relocated to Centreville to reduce lease costs.
Mike Furey, district manager for the Merryfield Postal Service, told the Clifton Town Council on June 5 that the Postal Service is running significant national losses and is studying reductions in hours and consolidation of processing plants, but that the Clifton retail counter is not slated for closure.
"The Postal Service has been hurting, our finances are in dire straights; [The Postal Service] lost 8 billion last year," Furey said, adding that a congressional-mandated $5.5 billion annual payment for future retiree health benefits has contributed to the shortfall. He said the Postal Service operates about 560 processing plants nationally and is considering closing roughly 250 over time; about 80 have already closed in the last three to four years.
Furey told the council the Clifton Post Office was not part of an evaluated set slated for closure. He said carriers assigned to Clifton were moved to the larger Centreville facility so the Postal Service could terminate a lease and reduce operating costs, but that the carriers continue to operate as Clifton rural carriers. "The retail location right here is going to stay open," Furey said, noting the retail counter's hours will be adjusted to open one hour later and close for an hour at lunch.
Kathy Baber asked whether personnel reductions at the Clifton retail counter were expected. Furey said reductions are possible over time as volume declines and as the service trims hours; he cited a national decline in staffing or office presence mentioned in his remarks (speaker phrasing recorded in the transcript). "As volume shrinks—and it has been—we need to react by using fewer work hours and typically it will result in fewer personnel," he said.
The district manager said the Postal Service plans to study smaller retail locations nationwide over the next two years and to adjust hours (two, four or six hours a day at some offices) based on how much business they generate. For Clifton, Furey said the retail counter generates enough revenue to make closure unlikely, but that staffing levels and hours may be revisited.
The council thanked Furey for the briefing. The Postal Service presentation leaves the immediate retail presence in Clifton intact, while signaling possible future adjustments to hours or staffing as national volume and revenue trends continue.
