Tom Beschta, news@shawanoleader.com
Cecil residents opted to maintain their post office with reduced hours after a community survey was tallied at Village Hall on Thursday.
Of the 397 U.S. Postal Service surveys that were returned, 83 percent were in favor of realigning hours.
“Based on that 83 percent, that is what (Cecil) is going to do,” Postal Service spokesman Sean Hargadon said. “Basically you go by what the input is from the community.”
Cecil residents were asked to choose from four options for their office: reducing hours of operation by two per day, providing a delivery service using rural carriers or highway contract routes, establishing a Village Post Office in a local business or government facility, and merging with a nearby office.
The survey was mailed in June and closed July 9.
Current office hours are 7:45 a.m to 3:45 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 8-10 a.m. Saturday.
According to information provided by the Cecil post office, the new hours likely will be 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, with lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and 7:30-9:30 a.m. Saturday.
Access to post office boxes will not change as a result of the changes.
Hargadon said the changes are scheduled to take effect in January. He said a 30-day notice will be posted at the Cecil office when an exact date is determined.
The post office is one of 13,000 rural offices being reviewed under the Postal Services’s 2011 realignment program.
The realignment plan was initiated in response to a 50 percent decline in Postal Service revenue since 2004. Postal officials initially planned to close 3,700 of the 13,000 offices in 2011, but most of the closings have been postponed twice in the last three years.
There have been no recent closures of any post offices in Wisconsin under the plan.