WASHINGTON — Three post offices in the Butler County area may close under an initiative that targets 1 in 10 Postal Service retail outlets nationwide.

The three are Hilliards in Butler County and Foxburg and St. Petersburg in Clarion County.

“We’ll wait and see. We just learned yesterday,” Donna Thompson, Hilliards postmaster, said this morning about the possible closing.

The financially troubled agency said Tuesday that it will study 3,653 offices, branches and stations for possible closing. Many of those may be replaced by what the service is calling village post offices in which postal services are offered in stores, libraries or government offices.

“It’s no secret that the Postal Service is looking to change the way we do a lot of things,” Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said at a briefing.

Once an office is selected for a review, people served by that office will have 60 days to file their comments. If an office is to be closed, they may appeal to the independent Postal Regulatory Commission.

Most of the offices that face review are in rural areas and have low volumes of business.

Coming under review doesn’t necessarily mean an office will close. The post office announced in January it was reviewing 1,400 offices for possible closing. So far 280 have been closed and 200 have finished the review process and will remain open.

The post office operates 31,871 retail outlets across the country.