LAKE BLACKSHEAR, GA (WALB) -
Changes are definitely coming to some South Georgia post offices but even postmasters aren't sure exactly what's going to happen.
A plan to close thousands of small post offices and processing centers around the country has been delayed.
It's possible many of those facilities will be saved but their hours could be cut back.
Friday, more than one hundred Georgia postmasters gathered at Lake Blackshear to discuss the future of the postal service.
The future and possible changes to hundreds of post offices here in Georgia was the key question at today's convention. One Post office official we talked today said he's optimistic about the future.
The United States Postal Service has delivered countless pieces of mail over generations… but with changing times, the mail provider faces tough decisions as it struggles to remain afloat.
"Forty percent of the people who do business with us today do business with us through an alternate mean. They don't come to the post office any longer," said USPS Area Vice President David Fields.
That's why more 150 postmasters from all over Georgia showed up at Lake Blackshear today, many of them with one question on their mind, "What is the future of the postal service?"
"We've asked our regulator for an advisory opinion and we have to wait for the 90 days that's required and during that time we'll just start communicating with our post masters about what the changes mean to them," said Fields.
Thousands of post offices are facing some sort of restructuring, whether it's mergers of branches or business hour changes.
Many of those branches are in rural parts of the country and some are here in Southwest Georgia. We wont know anything until September.
"We won't do anything to move forward until September and when we start moving forward one of the first things we'll do is conduct community meetings to in each one of the communities that we proposed to make any changes," said Fields.
Fields says despite what comes out of the survey, he's still optimistic about the future of the Postal Service.
I have no question that the postal service will be around for many years to come.
For now, postmasters all over the state must wait.
If those 13,000 branches are restructured it's estimated the Postal Service will save $500 million a year. We won't have a final word until sometime in September.
To see a full list of which Georgia post offices will be affected, click here.
Copyright 2012 WALB. All rights reserved.
All content © Copyright 2000 - 2013 Worldnow and WALB, a Raycom Media Station. 
