No post office cutbacks, yet

Saturday delivery, other service unchanged postmaster says MILFORD — Mail on Saturday will be business as usual, for now anyway. Henry “Hank” Ratcliffe has been employed by the United States Postal Service for the past 27 years; the last six of them as postmaster for Milford. With the recent reports of a possible five-day work week for mail carriers, eliminating Saturday delivery doesn’t appear to be causing much immediate concern with the public. Not wanting to speak contrary to any of the statements USPS has already issued online at www.usps.com, Ratcliffe this week said change won’t come overnight. “Funding to all post offices has ceased, we’ve recently entered into a 20-year lease for this building so the idea of finding a smaller bulding to cut costs is not a possibility.” Currently the post office, at 200 West Hartford St. houses 28 employees working Monday through Saturday. “I (personally) think it’s a good deal” he said, however “Pike county is growing, we are running short staffed and we need to reduce our spending where we can.” In an attempt to allay the fears of anyone who might be concerned about the mail changes, the postmaster explained there is a process which has to take place before this can happen. “It won’t happen for about a year, it first has to go before the Postal Rate Commission who has to authorize it to go to the Board of Governors. Then town meetings have to take place and finally it has to be signed by an act of Congress.“ If approved, Saturday residential delivery would be affected, however the post office is open from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. and businesses can receive their mail by obtaining a post office box. When asked why he thought this was happening, Ratcliffe said “The Internet has affected us, there are bill pay services, this is the ‘automation age’ with PDAs and (shrugging his shoulders) I myself am guilty of using updated technology.” But for now, the post office will continue to operate as usual.