Small KY town post office is closing

By Stuart Peck
Posted by Jill Lyman

Small post offices are disappearing across the country and Friday, the tiny post office in Curdsville, Kentucky, will be closed after more than 150 years of handling the mail.

In downtown Curdsville, there's a post office and a general store. After Friday, only the store will remain.

"We need this post office, and we need it bad, said resident Majorie Calhoun. "They just don't realize what it is and they don't care. They don't care about the country people anymore."

The Postal Service has decided to close down the town's small branch, saying the facility, a mobile home, had many problems and was no longer safe to house a post office. Still residents say they need a post office near by.

"We've got a lot of elderly people in this part of the county as well as others that use this post office," said resident William Edgell.

Residents in Curdsville say they're not only sad their post office is closing, but they're also frustrated with elected officials because they didn't do enough to try and keep it open.

"Pisses me off. That's exactly the way I feel," said owner of the building, Steve McCarty.

"I think it's a crying shame when we've got politicians that we have elected to look after our interests in this part of the county or this part of the state that are sitting on their laurels and not helping us," said Edgell.

Neighbors also fear this could be the beginning of the end for small town post offices.

"We are not residents of Owensboro, Kentucky," said Edgell. "We are residents of Curdsville, Kentucky."

The United States Postal Service has decided to close the small office. Residents there say it's a sad day because they're losing one of the last pieces of their town's identity.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Postal Service, David Walton says Curdsville residents will keep the same zip code.  In addition, P.O. boxes that had been at the branch will be moved to Curdsville Baptist Church.