Help Save Our Post Office

Thank you to the many people who turned out on April 18^th for the community meeting with the United States Postal Service!

Approximately 200 people turned out for the meeting and there were many excellent issues and concerns made by the many citizens who spoke that evening.  It is important that we continue our efforts to save our post office. 

It is now time to write our congressmen asking them for their support. The more people they hear from the more they will understand and appreciate the value of the post office to the citizens of our community.

Below is the statement of the Bronson City Council that was presented at the community meeting on April 18^th.  Feel free to use any of the information contained in that statement in constructing your own letter to the congressmen, but be sure to talk about how closing the post office will affect you and your family or business personally.

At the bottom are the mailing addresses of congressmen.

Bronson is a growing community.  In the past 3 years, we built a new 10 million dollar elementary school.  We updated our water system with a new ¾ of a million dollar water tower, added 6 inch water mains and fire hydrants, with plans drawn for future expansion. We developed a sewer system with room for expansion.  We have recently added a youth complex to our city park and are presently expanding that as well. 

In the 2010 census we enjoyed a 20% increase in our population.  We are a bedroom community conveniently located just 10 minutes from Southern Hills Mall.  Many people today are looking to move into the smaller communities for quality of life advantages. Our small city provides that rural quality of life style yet is only a short commute to the services and employment that the bigger city has to offer.

Our Post Office was first established April 5^th 1871 as the Floyd Township Post Office, which later became the Bronson Post Office.  The Post Office has been serving our community a total of 140 years. Today our Post Office serves 53 businesses as well as serving all of the citizens of our community.

The City of Bronson expects more of this growth in the future and feels that the Postal Service has a vital role in that growth.  In the past 3 years, the revenue for our post office has nearly doubled while expenses have gone down.

It appears to us at this time the proposal of USPS will be detrimental to our growth and place a hardship on our businesses as well as our citizens.  We are also very concerned about the loss of our identity.

We understand the challenges facing the post office, and as a community are ready and willing to help the Postal Service preserve the Post Office in our community.  We believe there are things that we can do to help defer overhead costs and improve revenue.  Future discussions could go far in helping to identify those issues and address them.

Some initial thoughts include:

 Maintaining the OIC position who could work under the guidance of the postmaster from a neighboring post office

Cutting service from 6 days to 5 days and or reducing the daily hours of operation.

The City of Bronson is willing to help with the cost of Utilities.

These are just a few ideas we are confident that can be expanded on to help keep our post office. 

We look forward to working with the United States Postal Service to help assure that the Bronson Post Office will be here serving our thriving community for the next 140 years.

Thank you,

Bronson City Council

Mailing addresses for our congressmen:

Senator Chuck Grassley

120 Federal Building

Sioux City, Iowa 51101

 Fax:  712/233-1634

 Senator Tom Harkin

320 W 6^th St

         110 Federal Building       

  Sioux City, Iowa 51101

  Fax:  712/252-7104

    Representative Steve King

   526 Nebraska St,

  Sioux City, Iowa 51101

    Fax:  712/224-4693