HACKER VALLEY, W.Va. -- Residents up in arms over the suspension of operations at a tiny Webster County post office have prompted federal authorities to launch a national review of how the U.S. Postal Service goes about closing many rural post offices.

At issue is whether the Postal Service uses an "emergency suspension" process to bypass formal public hearings and other due-process steps to effectively close certain post offices. That includes 97 shut down over the past five years, in circumstances similar to those in Hacker Valley.

The Hacker Valley Post Office, housed in a green, trailer-augmented cement block building along W.Va. 20, has been closed since July 1 under an emergency suspension by the Postal Service.

Residents complain that they first heard their post office might close in a public notice issued 17 days before a public meeting on the emergency suspension.

During the June meeting, they say, Postal Service officials told them the lease had been terminated for the existing post office, which was losing money, and no suitable replacement location had been found. Also, a building freeze was in effect, so a new post office building probably wouldn't be built.

"The Postal Service representatives basically told us it was all over for the post office," said Brian Van Nostrand, a Hacker Valley potter who heads an ad hoc citizens' committee to save the post office.

"We stood out in the rain, because we couldn't all fit into the senior center where they held the meeting, and they told us there was nothing they could do," said Janet Fisher, who works at the Holly River Store, a short distance up the highway from the post office.

For 86-year-old Retha Hinkle Casto, it seemed "like the postal department already had their mind made up to close the post office before letting the people know," as she wrote in a letter to the federal Postal Regulatory Commission.

Postal Service officials say they conducted a survey in 2006 to try to find an alternative site for the Hacker Valley Post Office.

"One existing structure that could serve as a potential post office was not available," Postal Service attorney Anthony Alverno replied in response to a query from the Postal Regulatory Commission.

The Postal Service's Eastern Facilities Service Office "determined that no other suitable buildings were available," according to Alverno. "The other buildings in the area were either occupied by businesses or did not meet all of the Postal Service's standards for post office sites."

Alverno said a second survey was conducted later, which determined "that there were no suitable alternative sites in Hacker Valley."

However, Hacker Valley residents counter that the Postal Service had known of the building's owner's plan to terminate the lease for four years, and had plenty of time to relocate the post office in one of several available structures.

The woman who owns the current post office building, a widow with health issues who no longer wants to manage it, offered to extend the lease until the Postal Service could find a replacement structure, according to Van Nostrand.

The Webster County school board has offered, for a nominal fee, the old Hacker Valley Elementary School cafeteria building, vacant only a few months since the community's new school opened.

"It's already handicapped-accessible and has all the utilities," said Van Nostrand, who said community volunteers have offered to renovate the cafeteria for free to better accommodate a post office.

Bill Lake of Sun Lumber, who manages a mill near the post office building, offered to build a new post office building free of charge on donated land, and then lease it to the Postal Service, according to Van Nostrand.

Van Nostrand's son, Buckhannon architect Bryson Van Nostrand, drew up plans for the building and submitted them to the Postal Service's facilities headquarters in Greensboro, N.C.

"We had several places identified where they could have a post office," said Donna Boggs, a member of the citizens' committee. "As far as we know, they only looked at one - the cafeteria building - and said they didn't want it because it wasn't easy to see from the road [W.Va. 20]."

The cafeteria building is located a short distance from the highway, across the parking lot from the community's $8 million centerpiece, the recently opened Hacker Valley Elementary School. Postal patrons would have no trouble finding the structure, and passersby would have little difficulty spotting it from the highway, Boggs said.

Dozens of Hacker Valley residents have written to the Postal Regulatory Commission to complain about the hardships posed by closing the post office.

To pick up prescription drugs or oversize packages or buy money orders, residents of the Hacker Valley area now must drive to one of the nearest remaining post offices - usually in Rock Cave, 20 miles distant, or Diana, about 14 miles away on winding mountain roads.

"It's a big inconvenience," said Fisher.

"When the guys that work at the mill get off work, there isn't enough time for them to drive to another post office before they close to get their money orders," said Boggs. "And most of the people who live here are seniors. Having to drive an hour or more round-trip on these mountain roads to pick up a package or their medicine is asking a lot of them."

While community residents asked the Postal Regulatory Commission to look into the suspension of services at Hacker Valley, the Postal Service argued that the commission lacked jurisdiction to do so.

The Postal Service maintained that since it had not launched a "discontinuance study" to begin permanently closing the post office, the PRC had no established process in which to review the Postal Service's actions.

The PRC agreed that it had no authority to order the Postal Service to reopen the Hacker Valley Post Office. But in an October ruling, the commission did urge the Postal Service to "refrain from the improper use of the emergency suspension process" to close post offices like Hacker Valley.

 "History strongly suggests that the Postal Service is using its suspension authority to avoid the explicit congressional instructions to hear and consider the concerns of patrons before closing post offices," the commission concluded.

The PRC also asked the Postal Service to provide a list of all post offices "suspended" and effectively closed during the past five years due to lease expirations like the one at Hacker Valley.

The Postal Service responded that 97 post offices had closed nationwide through lease expirations during that time period, and only two had been reopened. Twenty-five of the 97 post offices were eventually closed following discontinuance procedures, and 5 more face permanent closure proceedings.

That leaves 65 post offices in limbo but effectively closed -- many of them for years -- through suspension by the Postal Service.

According to a PRC notice filed in November, the commission "is concerned that post office customers throughout the nation do not have access to local post offices and their services due to suspensions. It is evident that several post offices have been suspended for a number of years, and the Postal Service apparently has taken no effective action to reopen or close such offices."

Based on input from the Hacker Valley case, the Postal Service may be avoiding the public hearing and appeals process called for in permanent closure proceedings "by suspending post offices and allowing them to simply remain suspended without any action," the PRC concluded in its notice.

A plan to reopen or permanently close a suspended post office is supposed to be completed within 90 days of the suspension, according to postal rules, according ton the PRC.

The November filing by the PRC included an announcement that the commission was initiating a national public inquiry "to better understand the scope of this matter."

It invited patrons of suspended post offices to provide written comments by Jan. 15, and appointed a public representative to work with the Postal Service to develop "an accurate representation on how written procedures related to the emergency suspension of post offices are being adhered to in actual practice."

"Hacker Valley is a vital community," said Van Nostrand. "People want to stay here. It's hard to find a home to buy or rent."

"We worked for years to keep our old school open, re-roofing and painting it ourselves, and then we fought hard to get our new $8 million school," said Boggs. "We won't give up easy on a $200-a-month post office."

Reach Rick Steelhammer at rsteelham...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5169.