Debate continues on post office

LAKEVILLE — The chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission dissented from a Jan. 26 “Order Affirming Determination” that found that the U.S. Postal Service had acted appropriately in making the decision to consolidate and reclassify the Lakeville post office.Chairman Ruth Y. Goldway wrote in her dissent that the Postal Service’s accounting is flawed. “The Postal Service argues that savings should be calculated on a full-time postmaster’s salary. Yet the Lakeville post office has been operated by an officer-in-charge (OIC) since the former postmaster retired on Jan. 30, 2010. The Postal Service argues that the savings should be calculated using a full-time position. Since an OIC is working at the facility and that person or someone with a closely comparable salary will continue to work there, any savings are illusory.“The Postal Service already claims billions of dollars in savings from reducing labor costs. I believe the savings from substituting OICs in postmaster positions throughout the nation has already been included in those billions. There are inherent and blatant contradictions in the record that must be corrected on remand.”Goldway was in the minority, however; the commission voted to affirm the decision to reclassify the facility.The order states that once the Lakeville post office is reclassified from an independent post office to a “classified branch” of the Salisbury post office, it will continue to provide “the same services as a post office, except for postage meter setting and acceptance of permit mail.”An employee at the Postal Regulatory Commission, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that such dissents from Goldway, on similar grounds, are not unusual. “The chairman believes the accounting should be accurate,” the source said.The source also said that Lakeville residents who suspect the reclassification is the first step toward closing the Lakeville post office for good have some grounds for their fears. He said the Postal Service and the commission disagree on whether closing classified branches requires the same procedure, including public notice and the opportunity to appeal, as closing independent post offices. “The Commission has asked Congress to resolve this,” the source said.But the source also said it was unlikely the Postal Service would try to close Lake­ville now, after going through the effort to reclassify. “Chances are they won’t, because if that was the plan they would have done it already.”