WARSAW, Minn. -- Small towns have certain charms that big cities can't match. One of the most charming, is the small town post office.
"Of a vibrant town you always think of having the post office. This is a small town, we don't have much else," Mark Mattison said of his town's tiny post office in Warsaw, Minnesota.
A couple hundred people call Warsaw home. There is no city hall, no town square, just an old garage otherwise known as the post office. But it might not be anymore.
Word came a few weeks ago that the Warsaw office might have to close. The U.S. Postal Service has to cut expenses and that has put 25 to 30 Minnesota post offices are on the possible chopping block.
Since 2005 the Warsaw office has had no full time postmaster. It is open 42 hours a week with one full-time staffer to police the 46 post office boxes and sell the occasional book of stamps.
In the last three years the revenue has dropped seven percent at the Warsaw location and there is another post office just three miles down the road in Morristown. But that isn't the point in Warsaw. The point the place.
"I think it's real important to a town. Besides picking up the mail you meet people there and get the chance to talk, especially in a small community where everyone knows each other," Mattison said.
Warsaw will learn if its Post Office will close in the coming months.
Here's a list of other Minnesota Post Offices up for possible closure: Dovray, Clements, Trail, Kenneth, Taopi, Silver Creek, Holland, Steen, Holmes City, Garden City, Puposky, Woodstock, Revere, Loman, Elrosa, Warsaw, Dalbo, Odin, Hope, Peterson, Tenstrike, Spring Lake, Bejou, Beltrami, Foxhome, Flom, Strandquist
(Copyright 2011 by KARE. All Rights Reserved.)