Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Cale Post Office to be closed

As of Oct. 17, services will no longer be offered at the Cale Post Office.

Residents of Cale, population 110, were informed of the United States Postal Service's intent to close the office down at a public meeting Thursday, Oct. 2.

The residents, however, had been informed of these plans prior to the meeting.

Cale Mayor Davis Benton opened the proceedings by reminding everyone the community lost its school 12 years ago when it consolidated with what is now the Nevada School District in Rosston.

The city, he said, was fortunate to get the old school building, which became the Cale City Hall. The former City Hall was remodeled and the Post Office moved into it.

The city's revenue, he said, has gone down over the years, but the lease it has with the USPS helps Cale be able to maintain the grounds and pay bills. In fact, the lease funds provide the bulk of Cale's general fund at $2,400 per year.

"If the Post Office closes," he said, "few will suffer from the loss of it in itself, but there are advantages to having one here. The community can't imaging not having a Post Office."

The Cale Post Office, he added, has been around almost 100 years.

Patti Robinson, marketing manager with the USPS, said the rationale behind closing the Post Office was it's inefficient to keep it open.

The Post Office, she said, services 18 boxes. Of these, 14 have rural mailboxes where residents can receive their mail.

Cale's Post Office is open two hours a day and averages three transactions daily. Its revenue has dropped from $2,000 a year to $1,000 annually and the only employee recently retired.

Part of the problem, Robinson said, is when the job was advertised, no one wanted it. This is because being a postmaster is a career position, and to become a postmaster requires at least one continuous year of service with the USPS.

However, the Cale position pays $6.50 per hour for two hours a day, and none of the career employees wanted to take a cut in pay, Robinson said.

"The USPS is trying to operate more economically than before  more like a business," she said. "It doesn't make sense if we have no compelling reason to keep the Post Office open to do so."

According to Robinson, the rural carriers can do anything the Post Office can do. She said if people need stamps they can leave the money in their box and have them the next day. The same goes for money orders.

At this, though, members of the audience voiced their disapproval for security reasons. Several people said it isn't safe to leave money in the mailbox as anyone can come by and get it. Some said their mail had been opened by others, and gets delivered to the wrong house.

Robinson said such situations should be directed to Harold Bennet, USPS manager, whose job it is to take care of this type of problem.

Bennet said the way things are in Cale the USPS has 14 dual tenants (people who get mail in two locations), and this costs the postal service about $50 per box per year.

He said the USPS could set up a neighborhood delivery box with 16 units. For a one-time fee of about $900 to the USPS, it would provide the security residents want, along with the services they desire. But, there would be one working there, as it's a stand-alone unit.

Janie Franklin asked if it would be possible to share a postmaster with another community, as it's not convenient for Cale residents to go to Rosston's Post Office.

The postmaster designation, Robinson said, was established by Congress when the USPS was a federal agency. When a postmaster is sworn in, it is for one Post Office only.

However, she pointed out there are replacement postmasters who fill in for regular postmasters when they're sick or on vacation. This has been the case in Cale since the postmaster retired.

In addition, Robinson said, there are accountability issues. A postmaster's job is to make sure the Post Office is open. The also have financial responsibilities, including stamps and money orders. A person must be bonded in order to sell money orders.

Benton said the letter received by Cale residents stated the primary reason for the Post Office closing was because there was no one to man it. He asked if someone could fill in until a new postmaster got qualified.

Again, Robinson said no one wanted the job when it was advertised because it's a career position.

Robinson said the issue was not one of money because about half the Post Offices in Arkansas lose money. "It's about service. The service issue in Cale shrank from 18 to four. Those four are important to us, but there are alternate services available within five miles of this location."

Benton said he showed the lease agreement to Glenn Vasser, the city's attorney, with Vasser saying he saw no reason the lease should be broken.

"I know you feel like we're taking your life's blood away from you," Robinson said. "The $2,400 lease is essential to you. But we're not doing this to be cruel or mean, but we can't fill the position with a career person when the boxes may dwindle to nothing."

However, she said, when services cease on Oct. 17, residents can still try to save the Post Office by filing appeals. Robinson suggested they contact their representatives in Washington, D.C. about the closing.

"These are your rights," she said, "and I don't blame you for exercising them."

Once the office is closed, she said, the building will be put back into serviceable condition so it can be used by the community.

Cale residents will receive their mail with Cale addresses, but the Rosston zip code.

Robinson said if there's a situation where residents feel they can't rely on their rural carrier, they need to report it to Rosston postmaster Betty A. Kenzel.

Cale has three sources of income, according to Benton. One is a 5 mill tax, the other is state turnback funds, with the third, and largest, the postal lease.