No Decision Yet On Whether Hills Post Office Will Close

that it would consider closing 3,700 retail post offices nationwide —including the Village Center Station at 566 Allen Road in The Hills—no decision has been made, according to post office officials.

George B. Flood, head of corporate communications for the U.S. Postal Service's northeast area, based in Newark, on Monday said that there is no decision yet regarding any of the post offices under consideration for possible closure.

"They are in what's called the public input process," he said. He said some post offices targeted for possible closure in New Jersey already have sent out surveys to the customers of those postal addresses seeking their opinion. Public input meetings also have been held in some locations, he said.

Flood said that the post offices on the potential closure list likely have a posting in the lobby giving a time frame for the information process.

However, no such posting was up on Monday at the Village Center Station. A post office employee said no information had been received regarding possible plans to close, and no survey had been sent out to the post office's customers.

Flood had said there are differing time frames at various locations.

The process continues even while The Huffington Post reported that the U.S. Postal Service is facing bankruptcy, and is pushing ahead with unprecedented cuts to first-class mail next spring that will slow delivery and, for the first time in 40 years, eliminate the chance for stamped letters to arrive the next day.

The estimated $3 billion in reductions, due to be announced in broader detail, are part of a wide-ranging effort by the cash-strapped Postal Service to quickly trim costs, seeing no immediate help from Congress, the article said.

When the possible closures were announced last July, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said in a news release, "The Postal Service of the future will be smaller, leaner and more competitive and it will continue to drive commerce, serve communities and deliver value."

Bernards Township now has three post offices. The Village Center Station and the Basking Ridge post office at 21 Brownlee in downtown Basking Ridge both have a zip code of 07920.

Another post office is located at 8 Church St. in Liberty Corner, with a zip code of 07938. 

As more customers choose to conduct their postal business online, on their smart phones and at their favorite shopping destinations, the need for the U.S. Postal Service to maintain all of its retail offices—the largest retail network in the country—diminishes, according to the July release from the Postmaster General.

"Today, more than 35 percent of the Postal Service’s retail revenue comes from expanded access locations such as grocery stores, drug stores, office supply stores, retail chains, self-service kiosks, ATMs and usps.com, open 24/7,” Donahoe said at that time.

He added, "Our customer’s habits have made it clear that they no longer require a physical post office to conduct most of their postal business.”