BY ROBERT L. BAKER
The Brooklyn post office has 120 boxes. Martha Ord is postmaster. STAFF PHOTO/ROBERT BAKER
An announcement that some rural post offices could be slated for closure in a year’s time hit a little hard in Susquehanna County last week.
People aren’t too happy about it in Gibson, South Gibson andBrooklyn.
Curtis Stone ofBrooklynsaid it would be especially hard for him and his fellow residents, not to mention the fact that the post office itself might be the longest running one inSusquehannaCounty.
The village has had a post office since 1813, whenBrooklynwas known as Hop Bottom.
Not to be confused with the present community four miles to its south, the local post office was renamedBrooklynin 1830, and the town has had a postmaster from 1813 on when Putnam Catlin, father of the famed Indian painter, was also land agent
Martha Ord has been in charge of things as postmaster of the Brooklyn office since 1998, and when asked how a potential loss in service might impact the area
The Gibson post office has about 60 boxes. Judy Carpenter is postmaster. STAFF PHOTO/ROBERT BAKER
said she was told to defer all official comment elsewhere.
She noted the office had 120 available boxes and no rural routes as much of presentBrooklynTownship(pop. 963) is already served by the Kingsley and Hop Bottom post offices.
Stone who has literally run all over the world, representing theU.S.in the 5,000 meters in the 1948 (London,England), 1952 (Helsinki,Finland) and 1956 Olympics (Melbourne,Australia) bemoans the fact that his nation is now letting him down.
He left Brooklyn in the 1940s to attend Penn State, and after an academic career that included a
The South Gibson post office has about 160 boxes, but only 60 some actually rented, recently retired postmaster Jim Shea said. Tammy Perry is under contract to run the post office, but not a postmaster. STAFF PHOTO/ROBERT BAKER
long stint at Kent State in Ohio, he returned to Brooklyn in the 1980s.
He remembered that one of the first fights on his hand upon returning was a plan then to close theBrooklynpost office.
He and his neighbors were successful then, but he has his doubts now.
He still lives around the block from the village post office and enjoys the opportunity to chat with Ord, and other folks.
He bristles at the fact that he recently received a letter fromSusquehannaCountyemergency management office which says his new address isMain Street, Kinglsey.
“That’s more than four miles away. How are they going to find me in case of an emergency, and why does the post office have to move that far away?” he asked.
Kevin Walsh, acting manager of post office operations inWilkes-Barre, who has 63 post offices being studied under the present proposal said he recognizes that the people who grew up relying on going to the post office as an important part of their day, will be hardest hit.
But he also acknowledges that the post office of today is trying to bring postal services to where people move about today- whether that be inside a shopping mall or a local drug store.
Jim Shea, who retired as postmaster in April from the South Gibson post office after 28 years of USPS service, said Monday he thought what the Postal Service was doing was illegal, unless Congress agreed to rewrite the books.
Walsh said Monday that the people ofBrooklyn, Gibson and South Gibson would have the opportunity to be heard from while the process moves forward.
“We’re still listening,” he said.
Be the first to comment on "Three post offices may close"