3 LI post offices face possible closure

Three Long Island post offices may be shut as the U.S. Postal Service considers closing thousands of locations nationwide because of declining business as customers turn to the Internet and smartphones.

Among the estimated 3,700 retail outlets the financially troubled agency is reviewing are 112 post offices in New York, including the Reckson Plaza Station in Uniondale as well as post offices in Setauket and Penataquit in Bay Shore.

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said the potential downsizing would be necessary because customers are not using local post offices as much as they once did, opting to do business online and on smartphones.

"Our customers' habits have made it clear that they no longer require a physical post office to conduct most of their postal business," Donahoe said in a statement Tuesday.

"The Postal Service of the future will be smaller, leaner and more competitive, and it will continue to drive commerce, serve communities and deliver value," he said.

The agency, which lost $8 billion last year, is also weighing reducing mail delivery to five days a week.

Maria Armendariz, 38, of Bay Shore, was dismayed when she learned that the Bay Shore post office was on the list. She goes to the branch two or three times a week.

"I have a P.O. box here, and my bank is in front of it," Armendariz said. "I have a routine. I have a life in this part of Bay Shore. I don't want to have to go all the way to Brentwood."

Donahoe said locations that close may be replaced by postal outlets in grocery stores or pharmacies, which would offer services such as stamps and flat-rate packaging.

Shina Arije, 40, of Hempstead, pays his bills at the Uniondale post office and doesn't want his neighborhood's postal facility to be shuttered.

"They shouldn't close it," Arije said. "It's going to be bad for the neighborhood."

With John Valenti

and Lisa Du