75 Challenge Post Office Plans

To Cut Service To Gilbertsville

By TERESA WINCHESTER • allotsego.com

GILBERTSVILLE –  The noon whistle blew today.  The natives, numbering some 75 souls, were restless and a chain reaction of barking dogs, also in attendance, was set off as David Clark, manager of post office operations for all zip codes in 137-138 range, opened the meeting, originally scheduled for the minuscule lobby of the history-rich Gilbertsville Post Office but moved impromptu to the great outdoors due to the high turnout.

“This is an overwhelming turnout compared to other communities,” he said.  “I rarely have more than three or four people show up.”

Gilbertsville, once again, was proving its strong community spirit, as when it bucked continuous threats from the Army Corps of Engineers to build a dam by flooding portions of the town’s prime farmland and obliterating the village.  The residents eventually pursued deauthorization of the entire Upper Susquehanna Rivershed Dam Project.

Likewise, it resisted a plan to widen and “improve” New York State Route 51, which would have straightened curves, flattened rises, cut through farms, homes, barns, bridges, and cemeteries. Most recently, in 2013, before the New York State Court of Appeals ratified the concept of home rule regarding fracking, Gilbertsville, via the town of Butternuts, passed a ban on fracking.

Clark explained that the action being taken is part of the POST (post office structuring) plan, which came into being three years ago as an alternative plan to one which would have closed many post offices nationwide.

The purpose of today’s meeting was to discuss the results of a USPS survey sent out to numerous communities earlier this summer as part of the POST plan. The survey offered the options of reducing hours; receiving mail from a rural carrier rather than at the post office; switching to a “village post office” – postal speak for contracting with a local business to provide postal services; or using a another nearby post office.

A total of 373 surveys were mailed out to the 13776 (Gilbertsville) zip code, with 214 responding.  Clark once again made note of the unusually high response rate from the Gilbertsville community.

One of the frustrations expressed about the survey was that it was sent only to those assigned a 13776 zip code – residents of the village of Gilbertsville.  Gilbertsville, however, is part of the greater Town of Butternuts, whose residents, while receiving mail through rural carriers, use the Gilbertsville post office for many retail purposes – buying stamps and money orders and mailing packages.  Butternuts residents were sent surveys only for the post office which delivers their mail to their roadside mailboxes, meaning that their input was taken by a post office they do not use as much and, conversely, that the post office they most use did not receive their input.  Although people falling into that category were allowed to complete the survey at the meeting, a large segment of Gilbertsville post office users still went unsurveyed.

A USPS handout stated that, based on survey returns and USPS operational needs, retail hours for Gilbertsville will likely be Monday-Friday from 8:15 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., with lunch from 12:15 to 2:45.  Saturday hours will be 9:30-11:30 a.m.

Unlike some other local post offices, whose hours are being cut by half – from eight to four hours on weekdays – the Gilbertville post office hours are being cut from 6.75 to 6 hours every weekday.   But the change has more of an impact than the math shows because extending the lunch break will be an inconvenience for certain users.  It was perplexing to some that hours could not be staggered so as to be open from 12:15 to 2:45 p.m. two or three days a week to allow more flexibility for users.

“That’s not what Congress allows,” was a standard answer from Clark.

The person most impacted by the change will be the current postmaster, Victoria Bonner, who, having assumed her position in 2010, is the latest in a line of 26 Gilbertsville postmasters, the first being one Samuel Cotton in 1822.

By all accounts Bonner is greatly valued by the community for her friendly and efficient service.  Her formerly full-time position will become part-time.  As things stand, she will most likely be switching to another post office, an eventuality which irks the locals, who see Bonner as an integral part of the community.

On that point, Gilbertsville’s Tom Delaney summed up feelings expressed by many at the post office on the day of the meeting.  “It’s a terrible shame to lose her. She’s a wonderful asset to the post office and to the community,” he said.

Town of Butternuts Supervisor Charles Eckelmann, himself a postal service retiree, had some insights into the issue, stating that while he understands the need to cut costs, he thinks the USPS is going about things in the wrong way.

“Instead of disrupting the lives of their dedicated career employees, they should be looking at the real source of money loss, which is the requirement that the postal service have a 75-year advance reserve for benefits. That’s the straw breaking the camel’s back,” he said.

The post office change is indicative of a national trend to close rural post offices or reduce their hours, thus extracting a colorful thread from the fabric of life led in small-town America.

Gilbertsville does not have door to door postal delivery.  Descending upon the post office six days a week to retrieve mail offers an occasion not only to greet fellow residents but also to stop in at Value Way Grocery (known to all as John’s Store), visit the Gilbertsville Free Library (a handsome stone structure), or browse the collection of children’s books in the relatively new Corner Bookstore (not located on a corner).

The post office, though small, is a prominent feature within the village of Gilbertsville, itself designated in its entirety by the National Register as a historic site. The quaint wood frame building, standing near the intersection of State Route 51 and Commercial Street, has functioned as a post office since 1893.  The post office boxes are the same combination lock receptacles as installed 120 years ago.

According to Leigh Eckmair, historian for both the village of Gilbertsville and the Town of Butternuts, articles and photographs about the Gilbertsville post office have appeared in numerous publications, including in the New York Times and in a book on special post offices published by the Smithsonian Institute.