CROTON-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. -- Could you imagine not having use of your local post office ? The United States Postal Service is studying a list of post offices throughout New York to determine if the post offices should be shuttered, or if they services should be readjusted.
I think unfortunately, the post office is becoming less of a community hub, said Michael Suizzero, postmaster of the Croton Post Office. Previously [in] 1971, when the post office was subsidized and not private self-supporting, postmasters were appointed officials, so they had more community involvement than they do now, said Suizzero, who commutes from Middletown to Croton, and has been the postmaster for two years.
Croton is not on the list of post offices to be studied, but it is completely empty at 3 p.m. on Wednesday. Spokesperson for the USPS, George Flood, who had been with the postal service for 34 years, said, Our mail volumes are down 20 percent over the last couple of years.
Flood added that, We just have too many facilities, too may retail outlets, but at the same time, on top of the mail volumes going down, the way customers doing business with us has changed. About 35 percent of our retail revenue comes through our expanded access outlets. By expanded outlets, Flood means kiosks, banks and other retail locations selling post office good like stamps. The post office does not receive any tax dollars, and is completely funded by retail sales.
Flood also said that the postal service website receives about 1.3 million hits per day, and the postal service delivers 584 million pieces of mail a day, on an average day. Croton Postmaster Suizzero, was unable to comment on the study the post office was conducting, but did say that the Croton Post Office processes about 50,000 to 75,000 pieces of mail on an average day, serving the 10520 and 10521 zip codes.
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