The U.S. Postal Service, like so many other institutions and industries, has been going through a painful transition. Email and a slew of other digital communication forms — cellular voice and text, social media and free video services such as Skype — have taken some of the urgency out of sending a simple letter or card by mail.
Additionally, mounting competition from other parcel services also has cut into the revenue stream, without matching reductions in expenses. USPS officials have reported a $3.1 billion loss in its most recent quarter. At week’s end a plan was announced to eliminate 220,000 full-time jobs by 2015 — 100,000 via attrition plus another 120,000 — and move employees to a health and retirement plan separate from federal employee programs.
Something has to give. The service needs immediate budget cuts and a 21st-century business model for the long term. One solution has been to economize by closing USPS-staffed post offices, largely in rural areas, across the country. The agency has pledged to maintain service through less costly means: primarily, replacing offices with retail businesses that contract with USPS as "village post offices."
Four locations in Hawaii are under consideration for closure: Uptown Honolulu Post Office at 1170 Nuuanu Ave.; the Hanamaulu Post Office at 3-4251 Kuhio Highway in Lihue; the Kalaupapa Post Office on Molokai; and the Kapolei Station at 1001 Kamokila Boulevard.
It’s the proposal to close the last one, in the business center of Oahu’s "second city" that raises the most questions. Kapolei residents ought to take the opportunity during the comment period through the end of September to question it.
All four of the locations have been flagged because of below-par revenues and customer traffic, said USPS Honolulu spokesman Duke Gonzales. But the particular problem at Kapolei Station is that the space is rented and the lease is about to end. That’s why officials are eyeing the possibility of saving on lease rent and instead contracting with a nearby retailer to offer many of the same services through a "village" outlet.
Further, he said, customer traffic would be directed to the remaining official area post office two miles away, the Barbers Point Station at 91-1049 Lexington St.
For the short term, keeping that one open helps the budget-crunched agency because the Lexington Street property is owned by USPS, not leased. The address is still Kapolei, but it’s off the beaten track and is only open for three hours, 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Mondays-Saturdays.
Those hours of service would be wholly insufficient to serve Kapolei, which is still largely a bedroom community of residents, most of whom are at work elsewhere during most of those hours. The limited hours at the Kamokila Boulevard location probably didn’t help much in sustaining a customer base there.
At minimum, the postal service should begin plans for a full-service, USPS-staffed post office in Kapolei, one scaled appropriately for the second city Kapolei is becoming. If in the meantime a contract station must suffice, at least the contract terms should include longer hours of service, when the commuter community can make best use of it.
The post office directs community comments to go by mail to: District Manager, USPS, 3600 Aolele St., Honolulu, HI 96820.
Sorry, no email alternative, Gonzales said.
