The village of Ludlow will be keeping their post office open after speculation as to whether or not it would have to shut its doors.
According to Ludlow’s officer in charge of the post office, Ray Ferguson, 32 people showed up at a meeting held on Thursday afternoon at the Ludlow Fire Department’s hall to voice their support of Ludlow’s post office.
Ferguson said that 100 of the 179 questionnaires sent out by the United States Postal Service regarding the future of the Ludlow branch were returned. He said 84 of the 100 people who returned their questionnaires preferred to have morning service hours, eight people preferred afternoon hours, and two opted for rural delivery.
At last month’s township supervisors meeting, supervisor chairman supervisor Brian Bastow said that the United States Postal Service sent a questionnaire to township residents.
The letter, dated July 8, said that the Ludlow branch will be participating in a review for certain post offices, known as the POST Plan. The letter gave the residents four options:
• Keep the post office open but reduce the daily amount of operating hours from eight hours to four hours.
• Conduct a discontinuance study for the office, but still provide roadside mailbox delivery. If this were to be selected, retail and delivery service would be maintained by the use of a rural carrier.
• Conduct a discontinuance study for the office and find a “suitable location operated by a contractor, usually a local business.” The letter said that such an option may be able to increase hours of operation if selected.
• Conduct a discontinuance study for the office and relocate post office box service to an office in one of the surrounding locations.
The letter said that unless the community has a “strong preference,” which was defined as 60 percent or more of the customers affected, for conducting the discontinuance study, the postal service will select the first option and cut back to four hours of operation per day.
Ferguson said that the new hours for the Ludlow post office branch will be Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. until noon, and Saturday from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. He said that the exact starting date for the new hours has yet to be determined.
