Maine news, sports, weather from Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram, Portland, Maine

Outcry helps save West End post office

MATT WICKENHEISER

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Photo by John Ewing/Staff Photographer Protesters fight the proposed closing of the Postal Service branch at 622 Congress St. on Friday. Diane Sims, left, and David Greenlaw, both post office clerks for more than 30 years, lend their support.

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Photo by John Ewing/Staff Photographer Protesters fight the proposed closing of the Postal Service branch at 622 Congress St. on Friday. Diane Sims, left, and David Greenlaw, both post office clerks for more than 30 years, lend their support.

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Staff Writer

PORTLAND — A post office in the West End has been spared closure, the U.S. Postal Service announced Friday.

Postal Station A, a small branch office at 622 Congress St., was the only operation in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont that had been targeted for closure.

Hundreds of survey responses from post office box holders and customers at the station helped prompt the decision to keep the operation going, said Tom Rizzo, spokesman for the Postal Service's Northern New England district, in a news release Friday.

''We had a strong response from the community,'' Rizzo said. ''We were just notified late this morning, so we are beginning the process of notifying our customers of the study results.''

The Postal Service, which is supposed to operate as a business with revenue covering expenses, lost $3.8 billion in the year that ended Sept. 30 and has seen mail volume dive sharply. That has led to cost-cutting measures including reduced hours and the closure of some branches.

Although Station A was spared in the current round of cuts, Rizzo said, postal officials will keep an eye on the operation.

''There's been a strong downward trend in use of the mail and revenue, but we'll see how that trend moves over the coming years,'' he said.

The branch was one of more than 3,600 across the country that the Postal Service listed last summer for possible closure. The list was whittled last fall to 413, and Station A was on that list.

According to Friday's release, 162 offices are still candidates for closure. Nationwide, the service has 36,000 post offices, stations, branches, contract and community post offices.

Station A has 735 post office boxes, 379 of which are rented. The area's residents and customers were upset by the prospect of its closure. The branch office is in the heart of the West End neighborhood and Portland's arts district, where many residents walk to shop and conduct their business. Many elderly people use the post office, as do residents at Lafayette Apartments, half a block away.

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, ranking Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which has oversight of the Postal Service, said she is pleased that downtown Portland residents will continue to have access to Station A.

But, she said, the Postal Service must continue looking for ways to overcome its financial crisis.

''I urge the Postal Service to continue to find ways to cut costs without cutting customer service,'' Collins said in a release. ''The Postal Service must continue to find ways to create new streams of revenue and to build more lines of customer service, to both the individual and business consumers.''

Staff Writer Matt Wickenheiser can be contacted at 791-6316 or at:

mwickenheiser@pressherald.com