STARBUCK - The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is losing money and looking for ways to save.

It recently announced that it may close about 3,700 of its 32,000 offices around the country, including the one in Starbuck - which has offered service since 1883.

Starbuck, population 130, is one of 39 retail outlets in Washington state are on the list for possible closure, along with Wallula in this area.

Under the proposed plan, which will take several months to implement and be subject to a community survey and public meeting with postal officials, Starbuck's mailroom would stay open to allow residents access to their boxes.

It is the office and the desk service it provides that would be discontinued.

Starbuck mayor Darcy Linklater offers one alternative to closing the office.

The front desk could stay open, he says, when mail is being placed in boxes. That would be a few hours each day instead of eight.

Ted Penner, the owner of the building currently used for the post office, was surprised when first approached about the proposed closure. He had not yet heard anything from USPS officials about the possibility.

Penner was quick to suggest, however, that USPS could cut costs by using an hourly rather than salaried employee at the post office to sort mail, handle packages and stuff boxes. He also liked the idea of having the front desk open for just a few hours a day instead of not at all.

Penner was open to having the post office use part of the building, the mailroom only, noting that he could rent the rest of building to someone else.

On USPS website, www.usps. com, it encouraged towns and cities that might be losing their full service post offices to have "village post offices," or post offices within other businesses.

Linklater and his wife Verna Foley run a bait, tackle and fishing shop in Starbuck. Linklater said he would be open to selling stamps but didn't want to handle the rest of the post office business that would be needed in a "village post office."

Foley said that a stamp machine could be put in the mailroom and that it would be a shame if the post office had to close.

"We just hope and pray that the post office doesn't close. We need it," Foley said. "It is 23 miles to the next nearest post office in Dayton."

Linklater and Foley rely on the postal service to receive supplies for their business and to ship orders to customers from their website.

Sheila McIlroy, whose husband David is the minister of Starbuck Community Church, said the church and its congregation use the post office on a regular basis.

She also noted that she would miss being able to send packages to her grandkids, brothers, sisters and mom on a weekly basis.

United Parcel Service (UPS) and Fed Ex also serve Starbuck, but Linklater said their rates are not as reasonable.

Cindy Harris, another resident of Starbuck, was seated at the post office picnic table selling luminaries for a cancer walk in Dayton. She said people with good causes to promote, along with kids selling lemonade, often make use of post office picnic table.

Harris mused that the post office is also a place where people frequently stop to chat and share news about the town.

"There has got to be other options besides all of these closures. The post office could eliminate Saturday mail and raise the price of stamps again," Harris said.

"The post office really means a lot to the community. It would be sad to lose it. Next would be the school and we are lucky now to even have a fueling station," Penner said.

If Starbuck faces closure of its post office, the owners of the family-operated Rawhide Bar and Grill might be able to help. Owners Chuck Day and Dan Sanderlin said they might be willing to host a scaled down version of the "village post office" inside their business.

If the mailboxes where they are, his restaurant could sell postal products, stamps and collect packages for mailing, Sanderlin said. His restaurant, located almost right across the street from the post office, doesn't have room for the mailboxes.

"It is a bad idea to close the office. Lots of people come there every day," Day said.

Sanderlin plans to contact the regional mail manager in Seattle about the post office situation.

"It is our intention for the city to grow not shrink and we really don't want to lose the post office," Sanderlin said.

"Everybody goes to the post office, about 90 percent of the town uses it daily. It is nice to be able to order stuff and have it delivered when we are so far way from everything," Starbuck resident and Rawhide Richard Ells said.

According to USPS officials in Seattle, it will be November before naires can be circulated and meetings are held in Starbuck about the possible closure.