Caledonia & Franksville Post Offices Not on Chopping Block

There is just one person assigned to Caledonia's Post Office at 11510 County Highway G, and just one lonely employee assigned to the USPS outpost at in Franksville.

But those two post offices are not among the 3,700 slated for closure, if Congress goes along with a dramatic plan to help the quasi-governmental U.S. Postal Service climb out of a sea of red ink.

Still, the Franksville Post Office has a for sale sign in front of it. The building is owned by Knitter Trust in Fox Lake, IL.

During a hearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, the U.S. Postmaster General said he can't continue business as usual and survive, and even threatened to end mail delivery for the winter if Congress doesn't step in immediately. See video of the 2-hour hearing on C-SPAN.

"Every American residence and business depends on regular delivery of mail and packages. This will always be so, even in an increasingly digital age," said Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe. "Nevertheless, the postal service is at the brink of default."

The USPS is facing several huge financial problems, including a drastic decline in the number of pieces of mail carried each year (down 43.1 billion pieces in the past five years) and growing health care costs for retirees (with a $5.5 billion payment for retirement benefits due at the end of this month).

Donahoe told members of Congress he needs them to change the legally mandated rules of the game for the USPS so he can make critical changes. He said he needs to cut 120,000 jobs (on top of 100,000 positions left unfilled due to attrition), close 3,700 post offices, and end Saturday delivery.

USPS Spokesman Jim Mruk, who is stationed in the Midwest, said that many small-town post offices have outlived their usefulness.

"As cities and towns expanded outward, most of the original infrastructure remained in place, resulting in a large network of offices currently located in areas where few people live, work and shop," Mruk said. "More than 3,000 Post Offices take in less than $15,000 annual revenue and more than 9,000 take in less than $40,000 annually – far less than needed to cover expenses."

Mruk said he could not release proprietary details on how much the Franksville and Caledonia Post Offices bring in, but the amount the USPS is shelling out on rent is publicly available: the leases for the buildings at 11510 County Road G and 3319 Roberts Street cost more than $47,000/year combined.

Letter carriers and back office personnel were transferred from the Caledonia and Franksville Post Offices to the Oak Creek Post Office in September 2009.

The Caledonia Post Office has been open since Oct. 1, 1902; Franksville's opened on March 1, 1902.