The Southwest Iowa District representative from Congressman Steve King’s Office was at the meeting to give more information about the possible closure of the Post Office and answer questions from residents.

Scott Corrie from Steve King’s office says that if the Cumberland Post Office were to close, the city would be left with a couple options.

The first option would include having the city switch over to a “village post office” system. Village Post Offices are operated by community businesses to provide selected postal products and services, including Forever stamps and Priority Mail Flat Rate packages and envelopes. These retail units may also provide Post Office Boxes either inside or outside the business.

The other option would be what’s known as “cluster boxes”. These would be a group of 16 boxes that would provide a centralized location for mail to be delivered. Corrie noted that these boxes would be placed outdoors meaning they would need someone from the postal service to clear snow and ice. There would also be a 13 oz. limit in which residents would have to go to the nearest post office location to get mail that weighs over 13 oz.

Corrie also notes that if the post office were to close, the city would still be able to keep its own zip code. As for rural delivery, he says the main change would be the delivery times.

Although the Cumberland Post Office is under review for closure, it does not necessarily mean that the post office will close.

Corrie says one of the next steps in the review process is that the postal service will hold a community meeting in Cumberland on November 14^th at 6 PM at the Cumberland Community Building. He says it is important that there be a strong turn out at that meeting to encourage the postal service to keep the Cumberland Post Office open.

Corrie also says Congressman King’s Office believes rural post offices are being unfairly targeted for closure. He notes that rural post offices make up only a small portion of the postal services overall budget.

He says that Congressman King thinks there are other areas where the postal service could cut. He says the Congressmen’s Office is encouraging the postal service to change its policy of funding health care benefits 75 years in advance.