WEBSTER COUNTY, KY (11/14/12) - On January 29, 1855, the Post Office first opened its doors in the city of Poole, then known as Poole’s Mill and one year later, on January 29, 1856, the Slaughtersville Post Office opened in what is now Slaughters.

Both of these post offices will remain open, but their services will be greatly changed.

The United States Postal Service recently announced thousands of post offices across the nation will have their window hours cut. It’s a compromise the Postal Service made so it wouldn’t have to close locations. The post offices affected are mainly in rural areas, such as Slaughters and Poole. The USPS said it’s a move that’s expected to save $500 Million.

According to David Walton, a USPS spokesman, thousands of locations aren’t making enough money to cover expenses.

“We get no tax dollars,” said Walton. “So, we have to make these changes. The post offices that we’re looking at, we’re reducing those hours and it’s going to be based on their traffic. How much workload they have.”

Walton said that the current proposal will cut Slaughters from an eight hour a day office to six hours a day, and Poole all the way to just four hours. Neither office’s Saturday hours will be affected.

“Keep in mind these are just the proposed hours,” Walton said. “We will announce later when these hours will go into effect. It will be sometime after the first of the year, so as not to disrupt Holiday service.”

The proposed hours for Poole, as announced on Nov. 1, are 11:45 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. Saturday will remain 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Thursday the postal service will be hosting a public meeting to discuss changes to the Slaughters post office. It will begin at 3:00 p.m. at the Post Office.

Already this year the Slaughters Post Office has seen changes, as their mail carriers were relocated to Sebree.

“This is called ‘Duo Delivery Optimization’,” Walton said. “It saves us a considerable amount of money to have all of the carriers in one location.”

Last week Poole Market celebrated the opening of its Village Post Office.

Village Post Offices were introduced in the spring of 2011 in an attempt to provide postal services to communities not serviced by a Post Office, or in communities where the post office will be operating with reduced hours. VPO’s are part of the Postal Service’s “Approved Postal Provider” network — retail outlets for postal products and services.

The Poole Village Post office will operate during the normal business hours of Brown’s Poole Market, and will offer the sale of First-Class stamps, Priority Mail and will accept mail.

Walton said currently there are no plans to open a Village Post Office in Slaughters, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t happen.

“Just because the post office is staying open doesn’t mean a Village Post Office can’t open,” he explained. “And it doesn’t necessarily have to be in a commercial location. Some places even have them in the city building.”

Business owners interested in starting a Village Post Office in their community should email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Matt Hughes
J-E News Editor

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