United States Postal Service Closed Ripton, Vermont Post Office without notice, no Rural Delivery provided East Middlebury Vermont

I no longer get the US Mail because I live in a rural area that the USPS has ceased serving; no more Post Office, no rural delivery. It's as if the 250+ households here no longer exist.

The Ripton, Vermont Post office (05766) is suddenly closing, by management fiat, without community input or review and in apparent ignorance of Title 39, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 241.3. A decision to close a PO requires a 60 day comment period involving the public. There is also a 30 day period of appeal. None of this happened; the decision was taken in secrecy, and the only notice was a handwritten poster outside the PO telling residents that the boxes themselves would be removed by this coming weekend.

It's a new hardship for Riptonites, residents of a mountain community including many elderly, who will now be forced to commute at least 3.3 miles, expending extra fuel and expense to retrieve mail that used to come to us. The extra trips up and down the mountain will be even more difficult and hazardous next Winter.

I don't even have access to a car during business hours. Many of us are stranded without mail. Letters to the USPS are simply referred back to the local managers who closed our PO in the first place. The USPS seem to be an agency with the immunity to ignore governance.

Robt.
Ripton, Vermont
U.S.A.