The post office in Akron, Alabama shut its doors on October 14, more than two weeks before the October 30 closure date the U.S. Postal Service had told residents to expect, according to U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell. The Postal Service says the permanent closure, set for October 31, stems from a lease that was not renewed at the building at 197 First Avenue South. For the roughly 225 people who live in this Hale County town, the shutdown lands just weeks before a November midterm election with a tight absentee ballot deadline.
As reported by AL.com, Sewell says USPS closed the Akron facility 16 days earlier than the date it had announced to residents. The Postal Service is moving operations to the Moundville Post Office at 259 Second Avenue beginning November 1, with USPS in the meantime placing a mobile retail unit at the Akron location, serving customers Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., and Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. P.O. box holders can retrieve mail during those mobile-unit hours with proper identification, per the report.
Sewell, who has represented Alabama's 7th Congressional District since 2011 and was the first Black woman elected to Congress from the state, according to her Wikipedia biography, sent a letter dated October 16 to Postmaster General David Steiner and Senior Vice President Benjamin Kuo demanding answers. She said her office had not received a response to that letter and that she will continue demanding answers and fighting to ensure Akron residents have access to the postal services they depend on, she said in a Facebook response to the closure.
A Dispute Over Who Forced the Move
Sewell's letter disputes USPS's account of why the closure happened so abruptly. The Postal Service told her office the early closure was necessary to give itself sufficient time to vacate the premises, claiming the lessor required it out by October 30. But Sewell says the lessor denied ever issuing a notice requiring USPS to vacate by that date, and her office says it has documentation showing the lessor had agreed in writing to hold the rental rate from August 2021 for another five years, through 2031.
That account differs from what the property owner told the Black Belt News Network. The landlord said the lease expired in August, while USPS cited a combination of unspecified issues in deciding to close the facility. USPS, meanwhile, has pointed to the lapsed lease itself as the reason for the shutdown. The two sides' explanations of who pulled the plug do not line up, and neither account has been resolved.
Sewell's office says it received photographs showing the post office interior was fully dismantled within 24 hours of the closure, including removal of residents' P.O. boxes. P.O. box holders got no instructions on how to retrieve mail at the Moundville location, the letter states, leaving residents uncertain about accessing ballots, Social Security checks, medications and bills.
Residents Organized Before Washington Got Involved
Local frustration predates Sewell's congressional letter. Akron residents began a town petition that gathered nearly 200 signatures urging USPS to keep postal operations in the municipality, according to the Black Belt News Network. Rollins is also the one who reported the closure to Sewell's office. Sewell and Rollins have scheduled a joint public community meeting at Akron City Hall on October 20 to address resident grievances over the shutdown, per the same outlet.
The stakes of losing in-person postal access are heightened by Akron's small population. The town had just 225 residents as of the 2020 Census, a 36.8% drop from 356 residents in 2010, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures.
Election Mail and a Regulatory Question
Under Alabama Secretary of State guidelines, absentee ballot applications for the November 3 midterm must be received by county absentee election managers by October 27, and returned ballots must be received by noon on Election Day — deadlines based on physical receipt rather than postmark dates. Hale County's own absentee ballot deadline is October 27. Sewell's letter says the closure timing raised concerns about whether voters can receive and return absentee ballots in time, and she has requested details on what actions were taken to protect, process and deliver election mail that was present at the Akron facility on October 14, addressed to Hale County Absentee Election Manager Catrinna Perry.
Sewell has also questioned whether the closure complied with USPS requirements for advance public notice and consideration of community effects. Federal Register rulemakings show USPS has faced administrative scrutiny before for using lease expirations as a way around those discontinuance rules, with regulators maintaining that lease disputes do not automatically eliminate the public notice requirement. USPS had previously described the Akron closure as temporary before announcing the permanent shutdown.
Sewell requested a written USPS response by October 19 and asked for the Akron post office to reopen immediately, along with explanations of the closure decision process, any written notice to vacate, and documentation of federal regulatory compliance. Once the transition takes effect November 1, the Moundville Post Office, located roughly 14 miles northeast of Akron, will handle service for Akron customers Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon. It is closed Sundays.
