The summer season is certainly rough for U.S. Postal Service (USPS) workers who have to deal with delivering mail in the sweltering heat. But it can also cause problems for customers, as they may face potential service disruptions. Already this summer, the USPS has halted deliveries and closed post offices across the country in observance of both Juneteenth and the Fourth of July. Severe storms and flash flooding have also caused closures at dozens of facilities this month as well. But now, the USPS is suspending services in even more states. Read on to find out more about why the agency just closed three post offices.
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The USPS is suspending services at three post offices.
iStockThe Postal Service has over 31,100 post offices spread across the U.S. To keep customers informed about the specific facilities in their area, the agency issues local news releases throughout all 50 states. These will often notify customers about service disruptions in certain parts of the country, so they can find out if their mail is being delivered or if their local post office is open.
But according to several of these local news releases, the USPS has recently suspended services at three separate facilities in two states: Indiana and Ohio.
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One of the facilities is undergoing repairs.
iStockThe USPS sent out a new local release in Indiana on July 19 to warn customers that the agency has suspended services at one facility in Porter County. According to the release, the Wheeler Post Office in Wheeler, Indiana, is now closed temporarily "for building repairs."
When Best Life reached out to the USPS, spokesperson Desai Abdul-Razzaaq said that plumbing issues in the building have prompted the need for repairs, adding that "no timetable has been established for the resumption of retail services."
As of July 19, the Postal Service said that Wheeler customers can access their P.O. Box mail and utilize retail services at the Hobart Post Office. The two facilities are located about five miles apart from each other.
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The two Ohio post offices have reached the end of their leases.
iStockCertain customers in Ohio are also being affected by postal disruptions right now. The USPS issued two separate local releases for the state on July 7 to alert residents about the closure of facilities in the towns of Prospect and Commercial Point. According to the agency, operations are being suspended at both the Prospect Post Office and Commercial Point Post Office because of lease issues.
"The Postal Service lease for this location has expired," the USPS stated in both releases, adding that there is currently no information on a new location for either facility.
As of July 15, Prospect customers can access retail services and package pickup at the Richwood Post Office which is located 6.2 miles from the Prospect Post Office. But Commercial Point customers will have to wait until July 22 to access operations at their alternate location—which is the Orient Post Office, located 6.8 miles away from the Commercial Point Post Office.
Facilities don't always reopen when they close for lease-related reasons.
ShutterstockBest Life has reached out to the USPS to find out if the agency is searching for somewhere to relocate the two Ohio facilities, and we will update this story with their response.
But based on past instances, this doesn't always happen. For example, customers in Bolinas, California, have been without a local post office since March, after the Bolinas Post Office was unable to secure a new lease agreement for its previous building, according to an online petition.
Steve Hutkins, a retired English professor and founder of the Save the Post Office website, said that the most common reasons for post office suspensions are lease-related—whether it be that the lease was terminated or not renewed either by the lessor or by the Postal Service itself.
"In any case, when a lease issue causes a suspension, it’s rare for the post office to reopen," Hutkins wrote in a May 5 post on his website. "Of the 375 suspensions known to have been caused by a lease issue, only 31 have reopened."
