The Battle to Save the Downtown Leesburg Virginia Post Office

The Battle to Save the Downtown Leesburg Post Office

Gary Dickens November 2011

The United States Postal Service has placed our iconic downtown Post Office on the chopping block. Can this immeasurable loss to the downtown businesses, citizenry and courts system be stopped? Or will Leesburg, as the 1861 Leesburg Council did when there was a crisis of Legal Tender, find another way?

Last week the USPS sent a team to Leesburg to collect public opinion on the closure of the downtown Leesburg Post Office, one of 3653 post offices under review for closure in an effort to stem their current $10 billion/yr deficit. During the meeting we would learn that, in the estimation of the USPS, closing that office would save about $48,000 a year. We learned that the USPS expected we would take our business to the Catoctin Circle Post Office, as well use stores like Safeway, Office Depot, Loudoun Check Cashing and Costco to buy stamps and mail packages.

About 12 of the 50 citizens in attendance spoke to the necessity of keeping the downtown office open. Most everyone spoke of the unsafe parking/turnoff situation at Catoctin Circle and the long lines of people there. Many spoke of the great service that Mr. Edwards provides (who runs the downtown office). Councilman Reid and Lucketts businesswoman Karlena Glenn have international shipping needs and said the service at the downtown office was critical to their businesses. Many spoke of being able to walk to their post office to do business and Delegate-elect Minchew warned of increased traffic congestion as more people would have to drive to Catoctin Circle.

I came away from the meeting feeling like the USPS really didn't care about the comments, they just needed to get thiis meeting checked off so they could go about their business closing post offices. Councilman Reid pointed out that, while 20175 is a very real part of the downtown customer base, that no one in the zip code had received survery. Mr. Voorhees (Post Office Review Coordinator) said the survey selection decision had been made in Memphis and that that wasn't going to change. Mr. Voorhees was repeatly asked who our advocate was in this process to which he finally replied that he made the final recommendation on whether or not to close the office. Add to that, that no management from the Catoctin Circle office was there to speak on how the transition would be made. That alone spoke volumes to me.

So what next?

We were told that the downtown Post Office would be supplied with more customer survey forms. Please see Mr. Edwards at some point in the near future if you haven't filled one out.

Councilman Ken Reid has set up an online petition for constituents to sign. After you've read this article, please link to it from the right hand side bar and sign it.

As I read the Post Office Handbook (HBK-101) on Post Office Closure, it appears that in not including customers with 20175 zip codes they may have violated their own procedure for public meetings. From Section 254 it would appear that in neglecting to include 20175 customers than can not accurately conduct a count of the types of responses. Here's Section 254 and while perhaps we should get the Town Attorney's interpretation, I think the public meeting needs to be done over:

Analyzing the Meeting
After the meeting, categorize customer concerns as postal and non-postal.
Indicate the number of customers expressing each type of concern. Also
indicate the Postal Service response. Consumer and Industry Contact has
responsibility for providing written responses to any customer questions that
were unanswered at the meeting. A record of the customer inquiries and
responses should be handled as in 26.

If the decision is made to close, the Post Office Handbook HBK-101 gave the following information regarding appeals:

512 Where to Appeal
All appeals must be directed to:
POSTAL REGULATORY COMMISSION
901 NEW YORK AVENUE, NW, SUITE 200
WASHINGTON, DC 20268-0001
513 When to Appeal
a. Appeals must be received by the PRC within 30 days of the first day
the Final Determination was posted. An appeal is considered to have
been received by the PRC as follows:

Finally, it really appears the nation shouldn't even be talking about closing the 3653. According to Ralph Nader this whole problem is entirely manufactured by a 2006 Congressional Act where Congress mandating that the next 75 years of USPS health care benefits be paid into a pension account in within the next 10 years. In a letter dated Sept, 21 2011 to Senator Leiberman and Congressman Issa, Mr. Nader says that, it if hadn't been for this Congressional requirement, the USPS would be in the black by $1.5 billion. You can link to his entire letter in the sidebar also. Without going through all the math here is Mr. Nader's conclusion.

"It is clear that these prepayments for future retiree health care benefits are - at this point -
the primary reason for the U.S. Postal Service's financial crisis. In fact, simply looking at the
numbers reveals that the Postal Service's "financial crisis" is in fact an entirely manufactured
"crisis" precipitated by the ill-advised schedule of prepayments for future retiree health care
benefits mandated by the 2006 PAEA passed by Congress and signed by President Bush."

Folks, it seems we have our work cut out to counteract a USPS hell-bent on closing our downtown post office. Please fill out a survey, sign Mr. Reid's petition, write Congressman Wolf and Senator Warner.

Get more flavor of the meeting from the photos and captions below. And if all efforts fail to save the downtown office it would be my proposal that the Town of Leesburg take it over. Leesburg has some of the best management talent in the nation (Mr. Wells and Mr. Dentler) and I bet they could show the USPS a thing or two about running a post office.

About 50 people turned out on November 9 to here from representatives of the United States Postal Service why it was necessary to close the downtown Leesburg Post Office. Councilman Ken Reid alerted us to the fact the no one with a 20175 zip code was sent a survey. Mr. Voorhees of the USPS said that that decision was made in Memphis and that it really didn't matter as any other attendees would have probably voice the same concerns as the others. That statement seems to be in conflict with the Post Office's handbook on closing offices.

This was the night after the Tuesday election. Candidates Herring, Minchew and Reid were in attendance. Stilson Greene captured the moment when he responded to Mr. Voorhees, "You don't think numbers matter? Just ask these men who just won elections".

	Karlena Glenn has an internet business in Lucketts with significant international sales and therefore international shipping needs. She offered up one of the best comments of the meeting when she said, "Because of Rob my business is growing". She was referring to Rob Edwards who runs the downtown Post Office. Mr. Edwards is known to give service of the highest caliber. Why doesn't the USPS see those 3653 offices as business opportunities rather than liabilities? Like Ms. Glenn's business, it is possible to launch a venture in small towns across the country, given the proper infrastructure, that the USPS can provide.
We would learn that USPS management considers the Catoctin Circle Post Office adequate to serve downtown customers, as Leesburg residents can also go to Safeway, a check cashing store, Costco and Office Depot for their postal needs. It was clearly upsetting to the downtown business people who spoke as many identified the Catoctin Circle office as a traffic accident waiting to happen. It was clearly demeaning to indicate they could be served properly by Safeway and a check cashing store.
	Leesburg Councilman Reid (BoS elect), not only mentioned the problems with traffic safety at Catoctin Circle and the loss of the downtown office as an international shipping point, but pointed out a major flaw in the USPS's Leesburg customer research. It seems that an important customer survey, whose demographics were chosen by USPS-Memphis, neglected to send any to the 20175 zip code, only to 20176. As Stilson Greene would point out later in the meeting, in his estimate 20175 is probably 2/3's of the downtown Post Office's customer base. Mr. Voorhees (blue shirt, Post Office Review Coordinator) told Councilman Reid that Memphis had no intent to correct this oversight, that the downtown office would be supplied with more surveys to give to customers.
This slide blames much of the USPS's financial crisis on email and the recession. But red lights went on when I saw the phrase "in part". I was highly suspicious at that point. It only took a few minutes of internet research to find that Ralph Nader had sent Senator Liebermann and Congressman Issa a letter in September, calling the USPS's financial problems totally "manufactured", the result of a law passed in 2006 which requires the USPS to prefund the next 75 years of pensions over the next 10 years. Folks, that's like the bank calling up one day and telling you you have to pay off your 30 year mortgage in the next 5 years. Nader says that without that mandate, the USPS would be in the black. Nader is calling on the law to be repealed and for all 3653 post offices to be saved. He also calls out the USPS on blaming their circumstances on email. He agrees that the USPS has seen revenues decline 10% during the recession, but that that loss is not uncommon in the business world over the past few years.
	Stilson Greene has had a business downtown for 35 years and has served as Vice-President of the Leesburg Downtown Business Association. He knows a thing or two, has watched many businesses thrive and fail over the decades. *Regarding the Catoctin Circle Post Office, he said "It's a mess", speaking to traffic problems there, "it's a safety issue".* *Regarding the USPS asking us to take our business to optional locations he said "I don't see the Court System taking their mail to Safeway or the check cashing store".* *Later, when he learned that no one in 20175 had be sent surveys regarding the closing he was emphatic when he said "that's 2/3s of the business going to the downtown office".*

Both State Senator Mark Herring (left) and Delegate-elect Randy Minchew (right) addressed the postal representatives. They said that the downtown office was vital to Leesburg's downtown businesses, now and to attract future businesses. Mr. Minchew also said that adding car trips from downtown to Catoctin Circle was going to add to Leesburg's traffic congestion problems.


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Link to Councilman Reid's Petition here

Link to Ralph Nader's letter to Congress here

Link to the Post Office Handbook on Office Closures here