Operation save your rural post office is a success, following numerous meetings-including those in the local area-where rural community residents voiced opposition to Postal Service plans to close offices in the name of cost savings. 

Instead, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe now says a new plan is going into place, with rural post offices to remain open while operating on shorter hours. 

Donahoe, in a news conference, says the plan will save the Postal Service half-a-billion-dollars each year while addressing concerns of residents opposed to closures. 

Previously, up to 37-hundred low-revenue post offices-including 134 in Kansas, 90 in Nebraska and 167 in Missouri-were slated for closure or consolidation beginning sometime after May 15th.  Many of the offices, especially those in local communities, were based in rural locations. 

The proposes closures were part of the Postal Services multibillion-dollar postal cost-cutting effort to save the agency from bankruptcy. 

The new plan would give communities the option to keep their post offices open but at reduced hours.  Another option would be to close a post office in one area while keeping a nearby office open full time. 

The idea of village post offices-discussed in detail during past local meetings pertaining to postal service closure plans-could remain an option. That would mean a post office would close, but postal services would be offered elsewhere in a community, such as a grocery store, the library, or a church. 

The Postal Service now plans to seek regulatory approval for the new plan and get community input, a process that could take several months.