Three post offices part of closure study

Post offices in Elmo, Olney and Stryker are among those being studied for possible closure by the U.S. Postal Service.

Those three are among 85 in Montana being studied to see if they should remain open, be closed or contracted to a third party.

The agency announced Tuesday it was considering closing 10 percent of its retail outlets and planned to study 3,753 local offices, branches and stations nationwide. The Postal Service lost $8 billion last year due to declining volume.

Many of the closed stations would be replaced by Village Post Offices in which postal services are offered in local stores, libraries or government offices.

People served by those offices will have 60 days to file comments. Closure decisions can be appealed to the Postal Regulatory Commission.

The full Montana list is available online at:

http://about.usps.com/news/electronic-press-kits/expandedaccess/states/montana.htm.