Minnesota Could Lose Dozens Of Post Offices

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The U.S. Postal Service could soon close 88 locations in Minnesota. More than 3,600 post office locations are under review for closing across the nation.

"People are doing business with the postal service in a lot different ways than they were years ago," said USPS spokesman Pete Nowacki. "We're finding that our offices just aren't getting used as much."

There are 882 postal locations in Minnesota and 31,871 nationwide. The locations being considered include four in Minneapolis and two in St. Paul. The four in Minneapolis include Butler Quarter, Commerce, Dinkytown and Lowry Avenue. In St. Paul, they include Riverview and Seeger Square Finance.

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"What we're doing is trying to look at ways to shrink that network a little bit," said Nowacki. "You won't see quite as many brick and mortar post offices as you once did."

The Dinkytown location is used mostly by U of M students and staff.

"I use the post office at least once a month," said Vanessa Borotz, a local student. "In my mind, I can't think of another post office nearby."

Borotz said closing the post office would be a huge inconvenience for her and many others living nearby.

"Some of these urban offices that we're looking at, the situation there is they are located in places where we have other facilities nearby," said Nowacki.

There are other post office locations within a mile of the Dinkytown post office.

This is the latest round of bad news after the USPS reported an $8 billion loss last year.

"Our overall volume has fallen over 20 percent in the last five years," said Nowacki. "The amount of First Class Mail has fallen by half."

The closure of the locations is still several months away. Norwacki said it's a fairly lengthy process and there will be time for public comment. As for the employees, if the locations do close they will be reassigned to other locations.