Posted on 08/08/2011 10:13:17 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana
CLEVELAND, Tenn. — Eager to prevent the threatened closure of Cleveland’s downtown post office, Mayor Tom Rowland appealed Monday to U.S. Sen. Bob Corker to spare the Broad Street office.
“We sure could use your help,” Rowland told Corker during a meeting with more than two dozen Cleveland business leaders.
Corker listened politely but offered little encouragement about removing the post office from a list of 3,700 possible closings.
“Every time a tough decision has to be made, I can’t be calling up and asking that the decision be reversed,” he said.
With the Postal Service running an $8 billion deficit and the federal government nearly $14.6 trillion in debt, Corker said Congress shouldn’t block attempts to run government more efficiently.
As a former Chattanooga mayor, Corker often aligned himself with Rowland in appealing for federal aid for their cities. But the growing federal deficit will require Uncle Sam to scale back his presence in East Tennessee, Corker said.
Corker said the ratings downgrade of U.S. Treasurys by Standard & Poor’s ratings service over the weekend “was a real embarrassment to our country.”
“Hopefully, this will be a wake-up call for us to act,” Corker said. “I do believe that four more years of President Obama continuing on the current course will be incredibly damaging to our country.”
Corker said he is eager to make the tough decisions required to cut the federal budget deficit and said he “would relish” the chance to serve on the congressional panel being formed to come up with a plan by November to cut another $1.5 trillion from the U.S. debt over the next decade.
Under the budget agreement approved last week in Washington, D.C., House and Senate leaders will establish a 12-member bipartisan panel with members from both chambers to expand the debt reductions already approved. Failure to do so by the end of the year would trigger automatic cuts in military and domestic spending of as much as $1.2 trillion.
“I love trying to solve complex, tough and controversial problems,” Corker said. “It’s up to the leader [Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.], but I would love to serve on that committee.”
The freshman senator said Congress needs to make more spending cuts and changes in entitlement programs to rein in government’s size. But Corker said he is “fairly independent” and has worked as a problem solver in business and at Chattanooga’s City Hall.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 757-6340.
“Next time a tough election is facing you, dont be calling up and asking me to vote for you,” Nana said.
Corker is letting Barry take my Post Office...
I’ve had a box there for 25 years...
Can’t say I feel for you. The PO itself said recently that it’s bankrupt.
The postal service needs to be privatized. Period.
Do we need government grocery stores, clothing stores, gas stations? No. Likewise, you do not need a hugely government subsidized PO box. Believe me, you don’t.
I still cannot understand why the USPS with TEN TIMES the population base, cannot even post a break-even budget, while Canada Post, with 10% the population to draw from, and nearly twice the continental land area to serve, has been posting a PROFIT, despite being more unionized than most FReepers’ worst nightmares?
A shame for sure, but really how far do you have to go for another post office? Plus, how much real mail do you receive? I mean nobody gets their bills sent to them anymore. There is a lot of junk mail that people receive. An occasional card might come to come folks. So very few people will miss the post offices. I am sorry that you are one of them especially being conservative. At least you can be happy about the government saving money. That really is the priority here.
All my mail
I get my bills sent
No junk mail is put into PO boxes
Only house mail boxes get that stuff from their mailmen...
Its been my address for 25 years...
I never put up a mailbox when I built my house..
:(
:(
:(
That is a shame. Maybe they will change their minds before it actually closes. I am sure that the lobbyists are working on this with Congress.
Yeah and we have a RINO US Senator who wont even TRY to save our PO
“Every time a tough decision has to be made, I can’t be calling up and asking that the decision be reversed,” he said.
Gee you managed to beg for a foreign car manufactor to come to our area
and now we’re stuck with VW...
and paying MILLIONS of incentive money for the “privilege”
Thanks Bob...
First of all P.O. BOX user rent the boxes it is no a free service. Second of all having mail placed in a P.O. Box saves P.O. time and delivery money.
Persons in many area use P.O. Boxes because of locations where they can not see their regular mailbox like myself and are easy targets for thieves. Many businesses also use them especially ones receiving payments through mail. PO Boxes are one of the few things that are cost effective for the P.O. and make good sense. Last but not least the U.S. Postal Service is a Constitutional function of government specified in the Constitution. Clothing stores, gas stations, and grocery stores are not.
That said I drive about 24 miles round trip to check my P.O. Box. The P.O. serving my area has a poor central location at the far end corner of the areaa served.
To actually save money would it not make more sense to go to a P.O. Box only service system especially in small towns like it was once done as policy?
Cleveland Tennessee is a pretty fair sized town and the downtown P.O. would be needed. Or better yet since it is downtown make it a PO Box service facility only?
Back in the 1970s when everyone was worried about Japan kicking our arses, the Japanese Post Office had one person in management for every 35 workers. At the same time, the US Post Office had one person in management for every 7 workers. I am sure the ratio is probably much worse today.
The solution is obvious, fire four-fifths of the US Postal Service managers - instant profitability.
There are still small towns where everyone must go to the post office to collect their mail. If there is not enough mail to support a dedicated post office, it can be combined with some other business. In early America, many general stores also served as the town's post office. They did not have postal workers making over 100K in salary and benefits.
I sat and watched the method that Germany handled their downsizing about a decade ago. My village of 3k residents ended up losing their post office. There’s one huge post office in the region where mail is dispensed out of (about seven miles away). Then they offered up these commercial “mini” postal operations....in grocery stores. So there is a cage in the local grocery where some gal appears from 8 to 10 in the morning, and 4 to 6 in the evening...and you mail items out of that location. The system works and runs cheaper than a full-up post office.
I must jump in here.
“Nobody gets their bills sent to them anymore?” You are not a mail carrier, obviously. There’s nothing like electric bill day in the life of a carrier. In my office we not only have the in-town electric bill, but there’s the local Rural Electric association, so every route gets ‘em.
“Very few people will miss their post offices?” Wow. I invite you to come along sometime, count the bags of medicine I deliver daily.
“Junk mail” is not junk to the sender. The sender is a business somewhere actively trying to increase business, or in many cases these days, trying to STAY in business. If one would at least consider what is being advertised before it hits the waste can, I’m sure the businesses would greatly appreciate it.
Free Republic is a great resource, a fun forum, but when it comes to the Post Office, there is so much ignorance, I cannot believe.
3,700 possible closings?
They oughta look ahead a little and close 37,000.
Maybe as we both seem to agree in some areas going back to a local storekeeper serving as part time Post Master and renting out a portion of his space for boxes might work. My Post Office has been in the same basic location for about 100 years. It's original location was two blocks from current and was a railroad depot not used since the 1920's. The mail route itself ends within a mile west of the P.O. in one direction and goes over 15 miles east of it. For the daily pick up and delivery from P.O. to the USPS Hub a truck must go at least 10-12 miles out of route twice a day.
A central location would have put it on a US Highway on the route used to several others. But my mail because it is in a rural area actually comes from a contracted P.O. located next too a store. My mailman is not an actual USPS employee nor are any of the other workers there {three total I think}.
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