Herman residents lost their post office nearly a year and a half ago — they’ve been coping with the fallout from that situation ever since.

The good news is that residents no longer have to make a 10-mile, 20-minute round trip to get their mail. The community was finally put on a United States Postal Service carrier route for the first time this month. Residents in the unincorporated village that is part of Summit Township have always had to pick up their mail at a post office.

Now, they have the option of using a mailbox on their property or a P.O. Box at either the Butler or East Butler post offices. After 16 months of the inconvenience, having a choice must feel fairly freeing for residents.

Summit Township secretary Roxann Stickney said efforts to bring a post office back to Herman are still ongoing. the Postal Service will likely do a feasibility study to see if it makes sense to reopen or keep residents on home delivery.

The former location is out either way for several reasons, not the least of which is the flood damage that shuttered the building. There were also parking, traffic and site-distance issues, residents said earlier this year.

Herman residents may want to decide how they want this situation to be resolved and advocate for themselves. Is home delivery convenient enough to make a post office unnecessary?

Ultimately, it may be out of the residents’ hands as the Postal Service’s “Delivering for America” plan, published in 2021, aims to transform an operation in financial crisis to one that is self sustaining. Toward that end, the plan calls for the service to “evaluate and consolidate low-traffic stations and branches of city post offices into nearby full-service retail post offices.”

It’s no secret that times are changing for the Postal Service as it moves to compete with UPS, FedEx and the like. This unfortunate situation in Herman may have simply introduced inevitable changes sooner than expected.

The residents of Herman have handled this with grace, even working with one another to build and install mailboxes for the new home delivery service. It’s great to see community coming together when things are difficult.

— KL