Editor, The Herald:

The United States Postal Service is in the first stage of closing post offices in the state of Virginia. The smaller communities will lose their local post offices in the next few years. You will have to drive anywhere from ten to thirty miles to mail your packages and get a money order to pay your bills. This will be an inconvenience for many customers as well as the elderly who can't drive.

The carriers at the smaller offices will be transferred to a larger office miles away. We were told today the Burkeville carriers will be transferred to Crewe on Friday, April 15 to serve the Burkeville routes. This means we will have to drive from Burkeville to Crewe each day to separate and case our mail in Crewe and then drive back to Burkeville to deliver our mail to our customers. When we have finished the route we have to report back to the Crewe Post Office to sign out. There are many offices that will be affected by the new changes. Other offices such as Green Bay, Meherrin, and Rice will be affected as well. These offices will be transferred to the Farmville Post Office. These carriers will have to report to the Farmville Post Office each morning to sort, and deliver their route in each of these areas. All of these offices will remain open at least two more years or until Congress approves the closure.

The Post Office is trying to scale these offices back to just a skeleton. They are hoping people will put a mailbox up at their house. The post office will raise the box rent again and again. By moving the customers out of the P.O. Boxes, this will give them the reason they need to close the Post Office in each county. The US Postal Service will then put up a cluster box for the remaining customers. Someone will serve this cluster box from other post offices.

Richmond management, in my opinion, hasn't thought this through very well. They believe we can save money by cutting back to a five-day work week. Here are a few other suggestions:

1. Cut Postmaster General and Executives Salaries.

2. Cut Top Heavy Management Positions and salaries in the Richmond area.

3. Close small offices that are only open two to three hours a day. We have hundreds of these offices.

4. Offer an early retirement for employees with five years or less left to go.

This would be a great place to start for the Post Office. Today, our biggest problem with the Postal Service is we have to Top Heavy Management. The Postal Service wastes so much money just like our Federal Government. We need a good management team and leadership to run the Postal Service. We don't have it.

Finally, it would be a shame to lose any post office in our community, however I do realize the need to keep the post office open. People open your mouths and make some noise. We need to be heard.

Tommy Goin

Mail Carrier

Burkeville Post Office