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Show f t i Post office hours shortened According to Bountiful Postmaster Postmas-ter Nolan T. Birt, legislation was passed just before Christmas that mandates the postal service cut $1 .25 billion from its budget nationwide nation-wide during the JScal years J988, ; and 1989. ! ' " "We wer6 also mandated in what areas we would have to cut," said Postmaster Birt. "Some money must come from capital expenses, ex-penses, which will postpone the construction of many new post offices, including the one planned for Bountiful, and will eliminate a great deal of our equipment purchases. purch-ases. "We are also to make cuts in our operating expenses. We've worked work-ed to minimize the effects these cuts will have on our customers, and in fact, two-thirds of the cuts will be absorbed in ways that will not affect service. ... "But many offices, including ours, have to adjust our window hours by about ten percent." Delivery of mail will not be affected, said the postmaster. Postmaster Post-master Birt added that while he had to cut window hours, he hopes cutting cut-ting back in the mornings will be the least disruptive to customers. Also affected will be the collection collec-tion of mail on Sunday. "Customers "Custom-ers should mail letters on Saturday, because they will not be picked up on Sunday," said the postmaster. "We have no problem with making mak-ing a contribution toward reducing the Federal deficit," said the postmaster. post-master. "In fact, that is a good idea. But we receive no tax dollars, and feel that since postal operating "funds come from the ratepayers, the Postal Service must be able to use those funds to the full benefit of the ratepayer." The postmaster added that during dur-ing December the Postal Service proposed to be taken off the unified Federal budget, as it was from 1974 to 1986. "Because of differences in accounting methods, organizations organiza-tions to the unified federal budget do not have the flexibility to meet changing business needs, and as a business, it's important for us to be able to do so. It's our hope that Congress will once again take us off the budget. We'll still be accountable because we'd still be subject to the same oversight committees, com-mittees, but it would make better business sense.". |