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Small towns fight attempts to move post offices Page 4 of 5 <br /> closed by the Postal Service. "For some of them, it's the last thing <br /> that's left in town, and I guess I personally have a problem as to why <br /> the postoffice should be the last organization to preserve the town's <br /> identity." <br /> Despite the moratorium on closings, the Sierra Club and other <br /> critics say downtown postoffices are disappearing through <br /> relocation, which is largely unregulated. <br /> The Postal Service says it often needs to move facilities to outlying <br /> locations because of changing demographics,reduced lease <br /> expenses, the changing nature of mail-sorting operations, and the <br /> ease of getting large mail trucks onto highways. <br /> The Post Service did not have figures on the number of postoffices <br /> facing relocation. But a 1993 survey by the National Trust for <br /> Historic Preservation found that 23 percent of responding <br /> communities reported that their downtown postoffices faced <br /> relocation or had been relocated. <br /> Under Blumenauer's proposal, citizens could offer alternatives to <br /> closing or moving a postoffice. Appeal rights would be expanded <br /> as well. <br /> • In Fergus Falls, the city became alarmed when the Postal Service <br /> announced it wanted to move out of the town's old federal building <br /> to a modern facility on the edge of town. The postoffice was the <br /> main tenant in the federal building, which has also been used as a <br /> federal district courthouse. <br /> The proposed move has since been stalled and probably prevented. <br /> And the old courthouse has been saved, thanks in large part to a <br /> $700,000 appropriation passed last month by Congress. But the <br /> fight was difficult. <br /> "There was very much a feeling that the Postal Service seemed <br /> concerned with one item -- their own efficiency," said Jim Nitchals, <br /> Fergus Falls administrator. Ultimately, the Postal Service agreed to <br /> maintain a retail presence downtown. <br /> Mike Rooney, a retired postmaster from Benson,Minn., points out <br /> that a small-town postoffice is "as much a social institution as a <br /> mail facility. The postoffice in a small town is the community <br /> meeting place. "When the postoffice goes, a community can lose its <br /> identity," Rooney laments. "It's just another step in the deterioration <br /> of rural America." <br /> • -- Staff writer Robert Franklin contributed to this report. <br /> startribune.com <br /> NationlWorld _.. . <br /> http://w.../article?thisSlug=POST21&date=21-Jun-99&word=office&word=post&word=office 6/24/99 <br />