The Charlotteville Post Office is the kind of place where people stop to catch up with their neighbors, hang signs for benefit breakfasts, call to get the phone number of their local Assemblyman.
But the Charlotteville PO-as well as those in North Blenheim and West Fulton-is on the list of more than 3,600 post offices being considered for closure by the Postal Service.
The move comes as the Postal Service struggles to reverse $8 billion in losses in 2010 alone.
Local post offices said details are sketchy and they don't know much more than what's being reported.
"Nothing's cast in stone, but it doesn't look good," said one.
In Charlotteville, there's no longer a postmaster-just officer in charge Ken Sorensen and a single route driver.
Customers pointed out closing the post office there-open since 1837-is unlikely to bail out the Postal Service.
According to the Postal Service, post offices under review won't necessarily close and once selected for review, people served by that office will have 60 days to comment on it.
If an office is picked to close, they will be able to appeal to the Independent Postal Regulatory Commission.
Postal Service officials have said that of the 3,200 stations and branches under review, under 1,000 could be "considered as viable candidates to study further" for closing.
No changes are expected before the end of the fiscal year on September 30.
Arguing against the closure of the West Fulton Post Office, lifelong resident Shannon Hayes, in a letter to the editor this week, remembers biking there as a girl and later, mailing out her own self-published books there.
"...this is about something more important than efficiency," she said.
The North Blenheim Post Office was established in 1820; West Fulton's is also about that old.
Lawyersville was the most recent Schoharie County community to see its post office close; that happened in 1997.
The Dorloo Post Office closed in 1997.