BOWDOIN — The U.S. Postal Service will hold a public meeting Wednesday in Bowdoin as it continues to explore closing 34 branches in Maine and possibly 3,600 across the country to achieve savings.
A public discontinuance study meeting is scheduled to run from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Bowdoin Central School cafeteria, according to Carole Landry, the officer in charge of the Bowdoin post office. For 19 years, Landry has worked at the small post office that for decades has operated from a residence at 142 Store Road. It was formerly known as the West Bowdoin Post Office.
The Bowdoin post office currently offers post office boxes for residents who live in Bowdoin, Sabattus and Lisbon Falls. The Bowdoinham post office handles the town’s rural deliveries.
Landry said a discontinuance study survey, which was mailed to Bowdoin residents, is due Wednesday. Comment sheets are available at the post office upon request and are due Feb. 23.
Wednesday’s public meeting is an opportunity for residents to voice their feelings on the benefits — or lack of benefits — the post office offers, Landry said. If the Postal Service closes its Bowdoin office, the town’s residents could go to post offices in Bowdoinham, Lisbon and Sabattus.
In a Sept. 21, 2011 press release, Postmaster General Chief Executive Officer Patrick Donahoe stated, “We have reduced our annual costs by more than $12 billion and our work force has been reduced by 110,000 career employees over the past four years, but we must do significantly more to return to profitability.”
He added: “We must reduce our annual costs by $20 billion by 2015 to be profitable, and we do not currently have the flexibility in our business model to achieve these cost reductions.”
The proposed closure list for Maine includes post offices in Bowdoin and Sebasco Estates.
dmoore@timesrecord.com
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