Local Post Offices to Close early on July 3rd

Marion, Murphysboro and Carbondale close at 3 p.m.

CARBONDALE, IL — The Marion, Murphysboro, and Carbondale Post Offices will close at 3 p.m. on Friday, July 3, 2009 to allow retail employees to spend more time with their families. The last collections for mail deposited in blue collection boxes that day will also be 3 p.m. All collection points that have a regularly scheduled collection time prior to 12:00 PM (noon) on Friday July 3rd will be collected as scheduled. Regular mail delivery for July 3 will be unaffected by the change. P.O. Box mail access will only be available until 12:00 PM (noon) in those Post Offices where retail counters and access to Post Office Boxes are co-located and are affected by early retail closing.

“As many businesses close early on July 3rd said Marion Postmaster Curtis Shadowens. “The number of customers visiting our lobbies greatly diminishes. We view this as an opportunity to afford retail employees more time with their families by closing retail operations in most of our locations early on July 3rd."

Commercial customers are asked to check with their Bulk Mail Acceptance Unit for July 3rd hours of operation. To obtain the phone number of a specific Post Office, customers may call 1-800-ASK-USPS.

Post Office retail counters will be closed on Saturday, July 4, 2009 (Independence Day – a federal holiday) and there will be no mail delivery.

Post Offices retail counters will resume regularly scheduled hours on operation on Monday, July 6.

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An independent federal agency, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 149 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes, six days a week. It has 34,000 retail locations and relies on the sale of postage, products and services, not tax dollars, to pay for operating expenses. Named the Most Trusted Government Agency five consecutive years by the Ponemon Institute, the Postal Service has annual revenue of $75 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail.