The latest local news, weather and high school sports from the Heartland

FLORIS, IOWA -- Small communities around southeast Iowa are breathing a sigh of relief as the United States Postal Service announced Wednesday that they would not be closing 3,700 rural post offices throughout the country, including 178 in Iowa, in order to cut costs.

The post offices in Cincinnati, Exline, Mystic, Floris, Pulaski, Kirkville and Stockport were all original candidates for being shut down.

Instead of being closed, the postal service announced that they would reduce hours at the rural locations, a compromise many in Washington and in southeast Iowa were grateful for.

Congressman Dave Loebsack released a statement Wednesday to KTVO, praising the announcement.

“Rural areas and particularly seniors in Iowa should be pleased with today’s announcement,” said Loebsack.  “I had strong concerns with the original proposal since it was first announced nearly a year ago, and I have not been shy about making them clear to the Postmaster General.  The closures would have led to job loss and made it harder for rural residents and businesses to obtain services provided at local Post Offices.  While I am pleased the US Postal Service heeded the public’s warning about the negative effects it would have caused, I was disappointed that this new proposal will also mean cutbacks in Post Offices’ services and hours. I will continue to monitor this situation closely.”

Congressman Loebsack was one of 81 lawmakers stating opposition to the closings last July.

KTVO spoke with Richard Watkins of the US Postal Service about the compromise.

Watkins told KTVO via telephone from Kansas City that the postal service is happy that they will be able to keep the post offices open and that they know small rural communities love their post offices.

In addition, Watkins told KTVO that many of the post offices in the midwest date back to the Civil War, something those communities are proud of. But with that history, the post office knows that they had to cut costs, being they do not want to use tax dollars to fund operations, something they have not done in over 30 years. Watkins went on to say that even though first class mail is down, the post office is working on options to increase revenue without having to rely on tax payers.