Residents Against Possible Post Office Closures - KWES NewsWest 9 / Midland, Odessa, Big Spring, TX: newswest9.com |

Nick Lawton
NewsWest 9

FORSAN - The Forsan Post Office, dedicated in 1969, serving the people of the town by being just down the street, could be on the chopping block.

Forsan, along with 3,700 other offices, is now on the United State Postal Service's list to be studied and possibly closed.

16 West Texas towns are also on that list, including Barstow, Midkiff, Pyote and Coyanosa.

Forsan residents see this post office more like a next-door neighbor.

"A lot of people just walk to the post office," Forsan resident, Howard Whitley, said. "I'm here, I can see it from my front door, I'm maybe 150 yards. No one in Forsan wants to see that happen but what do we do about it?"

In a Postal Service press release, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said: "The Postal Service of the future will be smaller, leaner and more competitive and it will continue to drive commerce, serve communities and deliver value."

But other Forsan residents said taking away the post office means taking away part of the town.

"The town's small enough as it is. If they close another part of this town, we're not going to have anything left," Forsan resident, Betty Richardson, said. "It brings a lot to the community. I think it'd crush the whole town if we took it out."

"Everyone knows what time the mail is delivered every day," Whitley said. "A lot of people time it to meet other folks around town, to visit for a few minutes, say 'Hi' or whatever. It's pretty much a focal point or one of the focal points of Forsan. We're a small community but we need everything we've got here."

The possible closure is even drawing fire from local officials.

"Whoever runs the post office, if he's running a business, they'd fire him," Roger Hudgins, the Mayor of Forsan, said. "That's one of those things, if it happens, it happens and we'll make the best of it."

If the study closes the post office, the Postal Service said a smaller post office will replace it, operated out of a pharmacy or a grocery store.

Otherwise residents will have to make the 26-mile round trip to the post office in Big Spring, a future residents don't see suiting them and a future they don't want for their town.

"There's a lot of elderly people here, that is real inconvenient for them to drive and it's just something we like here in town," Richardson said.

"We're from West Texas," Hudgins said. "We'll do what we have to do to get along in life. I hate to see it close."

The 16 West Texas towns on the list for the studies are: Barstow, Grandfalls, Mentone, Midkiff, Penwell, Pyote, Tarzan, Westbrook, Forsan, Knott, Coyanosa, Orla, Saragosa, Sheffield, Toyah and Valentine.