We’ve got spirit
Voice support for Hedley’s Post Office
Donley County residents need to pull together to help the community of Hedley save an important resource to the town – its post office.
The Hedley Post Office has been without a fulltime postmaster since last August, and now its customers have been notified that the US Postal Service would like to close up shop there in favor of a rural carrier system. Retail postal services would be available only in Clarendon or Memphis, and the folks in Hedley are not happy about the idea.
Postal customers will get their chance to voice their concerns in a public meeting with postal representatives next Wednesday, July 20, 2011, at 4:30 p.m. at the Hedley Baptist Fellowship Hall, located at 310 N Main, and every interested party needs to be there.
The Hedley school and local businesses depend on the post office for many day-to-day
functions, and other local government functions and senior citizens would also be harmed by the shuttering of the post office. With no local post office, life will become a little more inconvenient for the folks in Hedley. Imagine a half-hour round trip just to mail a package. There are also delivery considerations that need to be looked at. For example, when will folks in Hedley get their Clarendon Enterprise each week?
There are huge forces at play here. According to a USPS press release: “The Postal Service lost $8.5 billion in fiscal year 2010 (Oct. 1, 2010 to Sept. 30, 2010) — that equates to losing more than $23 million every single day of the year. Mail volume has declined by 43.1 billion pieces in the past five years — from an all-time high of 213 billion in 2006 to 170 billion in 2010.” USPS says it is doing “everything possible to reduce costs and save money — this will involve consolidating operations wherever possible.”
By its own admission, the United States Postal Service is in trouble, and rural America is going to take a hit in any attempt to retool the system for the 21st century. Other area post offices have less business than Hedley and may face closure. Right now it is Hedley’s post office on the chopping block. One has to wonder if trends continue how long it will be before Clarendon or Claude or Memphis is faced with something similar. We may not lose retail postal services completely here, but it is foreseeable that the day may come when the post office contracts with a private business for these services.
There is a real fear that the postal service in America is headed for obsolescence. More and more people prefer to use e-mail and web-based communications for everything from personal correspondence to paying their bills. Every postage increase drives more business away from the post office, and shuttering rural post offices, in addition to making rural life harder, will likewise force people to look at alternatives. In 10 years, the Post Office as we know it today may be extinct, killed by a combination of apathy, technology, and poor management.
But that certainly does not mean that rural America should just sit by and watch it happen. In fact, now more than ever, it is time to stand up and be counted and let USPS officials know exactly how integral post offices are to rural life.
Max Heath, Postal Chairman for the National Newspaper Association and a friend of your humble editor, has some advice for saving rural post offices that we all need to pay attention to:
1. Provide written comments within the proper time frame, keeping them factual rather than emotional. Remind decision makers that the proposed rules require USPS to “provide a maximum degree of effective and regular postal services to rural areas, communities, and small towns where post offi ces are not self-sustaining.”
2. Be sure local businesses are involved and make their voice heard. Attend the public hearing.
3. Contact your representative and senators and ask their help in applying their clout to the objections of others.
4. If you lose, you have the right of appeal to the PRC within 30 days of the posting of the final determination.
Everyone who has a stake in the Hedley Post Office needs to be at the public meeting next Wednesday, July 20, 2011, at 4:30 p.m. at the Hedley Baptist Fellowship Hall. And everyone also needs to send written comments to: Consumer Affairs Manager, USPS Fort Worth District, 4600 Mark IV Parkway, Fort Worth, TX 76161-9631, before the July 25, 2011 deadline. And remember to keep your comments factual and polite.
Let’s make sure every decision maker knows that Hedley needs its post office.
Meanwhile…
Kudos to Chamber of Commerce President Charlie Smith for his work on Clarendon’s July Fourth activities. All in all, everyone seemed to have a great time; and while there may have been a couple of hiccups, everything went very smoothly. This is especially true when you consider Smith didn’t have much in the way of help and he had never been in charge of the parades and other activities before. Improvements can be made with experience, but for now, the community should thank him for his effort.
Certified pledge
20 years later
NCA cheer camp
And the winner is
Hedley Post Office may face closure
The future of the Hedley Post Office will be the topic of a public meeting next Wednesday, July 20, and many folks are already planning to voice their concerns to postal officials.
Letters dated July 6, 2011, were sent to Hedley postal customers informing them of possible changes in the way they receive mail services and requesting their opinions of those changes. The letter said the US Postal Service would like to provide service in Hedley through rural route services coming from the Memphis Post Office.
Hedley residents are overwhelmingly opposed to any effort to shutter their post office, and many people, like Mary Ruth White, say they believe the USPS is misinformed about how much business goes through the local office.
“Some folks think they haven’t done enough research,” White said. “The school, for example, does a lot of business with them.”
Jedco Leather owner John Dickson agrees with White that the post office needs to consider how closure of the post office will affect local businesses.
“I ship all my goods exclusively through the post office,” Dickson said. “I send stuff to all 50 states, and there are other businesses in Hedley – people working from home – who also depend on the post office. A rural carrier can’t provide these services. Hedley needs this post office real bad.”
Pat White at Hedley Independent School District said she mails things every day, many of which require going to the post office.
“I have to send registered letters and big boxes, and I will have to drive to either Memphis or Clarendon during the day to do this,” Pat White said. “I think it will hurt our school and definitely hurt a lot of elderly people. Even if it was open half a day, it would be better than closing it.”
Residents also said they did not believe that their post office should be shut down if Estelline, Lakeview, Quail, and other smaller post offices remain open.
Hedley folks also bristled at the idea of the USPS recommending they drive to Lakeview for retail postal services. The letter claimed Lakeview is 11.0 miles away, but to drive from Hedley to Lakeview is over 20 miles.
“Apparently, they don’t know where Lakeview is,” Dickson said.
USPS spokesman Sam Bolen said the service understands there was an error in the letter and said it should have suggested Memphis or Clarendon instead of Memphis or Lakeview.
“We are just currently gathering data for an initial proposal,” Bolen said, noting that comments from next Wednesday’s meeting will be used to formulate when considering the post office’s fate. He said the Hedley Post Office currently has 280 boxes but only about half of them are rented.
Bolen said, in addition to rural carrier service, the USPS would consider expanded access through a local store or some kind of central delivery point as possible alternatives to maintaining the local post office.
According to a USPS press release, the Postal Service lost $8.5 billion in fiscal year 2010 (Oct. 1, 2010 to Sept. 30, 2010) – that equates to losing more than $23 million every single day of the year. Mail volume has declined by 43.1 billion pieces in the past five years – from an all-time high of 213 billion in 2006 to 170 billion in 2010. The Postal Service is doing everything possible to reduce costs and save money – this will involve consolidating operations wherever possible.
The Hedley community meeting will take place at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, July 20, 2011 at the Hedley Baptist Fellowship Hall, located at 310 N Main. Customers will have an opportunity to meet with a Postal Service representative to discuss alternatives.
Written comments will be accepted through July 25, 2011, and may be mailed to: Consumer Affairs Manager, USPS Fort Worth District, 4600 Mark IV Parkway, Fort Worth, TX 76161-9631.
New officers
Babcock to appear in court next month
Accused murderer Robert Babcock was scheduled to appear in district court in Clarendon Wednesday morning, July 13, for a bond reduction hearing, but the district attorney’s office says a continuance was issued in case because one of Babcock’s attorneys had a death in the family.
DA Luke Inman tells the Enterprise that the bond reduction hearing, along with pre-trial matters and the setting of a trial date, is now scheduled to occur on August 18 at 8 a.m.
Babcock remains in the Donley County Jail with bond set at $1.1 million. He is charged with Capital Murder in the beating death of his four-year-old son, Chance Mark Jones, this past January.
Mildred Lorene Barker Tomlinson
Mildred Lorene Barker Tomlinson, 91, died July 4, 2011 in Dewey, OK.
Services were held Thursday, July 7 at Stumpff Funeral Home in Bartlesville, OK, with Reverend Craig Stinson, officiating. Interment was held at the Memorial Park Cemetery.
Mildred was a beloved mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and sister. She was one of eight children born to Nova Ann (Hinkle) and Carl Cleason Barker. She was born in 1920 in Ashtola, TX. In 1940, she and DW “Dub” Tomlinson were married in Clarendon, Texas. They later moved to Phillips, TX, and on to Bartlesville, OK in 1968. She has been a faithful member of Highland Park Baptist Church since that time. Mildred was preceded in death by her parents, and her husband DW Tomlinson.
Survivors include her two sons Doug and wife Barbara of Bartlesville, and Phil and wife Pam of Mesa, AZ; five grandchildren Jason Tomlinson and wife Ryan of Bartlesville, Niki Tomlinson of Bartlesville, Laura Tomlinson and Greg Tomlinson of AZ, and Sean Harris of MI.; four great grandchildren; two sisters, Mary Murff of Synder, Tx and Nova Mooring of Clarendon, Tx; and one brother, Don Barker of Amarillo, TX.
The family suggests that memorial donations be sent to the American Diabetes Association, P.O. Box 11454, Alexandria, VA 22312, or one’s favorite charity in Mildred’s honor.
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