The public meeting held last week at the Hamlet Town Hall regarding the local Post Office’s hours of operation brought out a decent turnout. The meeting was held to gather public input regarding the United States Postal Service’s POST plan, which is a review process of certain Post Offices including the Hamlet branch.
Before the meeting took place, 801 customer surveys were mailed out to get an idea of what option residents preferred regarding the post office. Unfortunately, only 229 surveys were returned. Most of the surveys supported the option of changing the Post Office’s hours to a six-hour window, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. Saturday hours would not be affected.
The next step will be to have a postal inspector take a look at the PO Boxes at the branch and determine what improvements can be made. However, because there is a drop ceiling at the office, that poses an issue because people would be able to get from the outside boxes to the inside boxes, and officials are concerned about the possibility of vandalism.
Currently, the branch is open from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., but to cut down on operating costs, those hours will soon be reduced to just six hours a day. That change, if approved, will likely not take place until the first of the year, as the holidays are a very busy time for the Post Office.
