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Tamms May Lose Its Post Office Too

Jacob McCleland
/
KRCU

It looks certain the village of Tamms, Illinois will lose its Supermax prison, and now another closure looms large. The village’s post office announced it will shut down on December 28.

A lease disagreement between the U.S. Postal Service and the local office building’s owner might shut off mail service to the Alexander County town.

Postal Service spokesperson Valerie Welsh says this does not necessarily mean the facility will close, though she concedes closure is one of several options. Welsch says citizens may have to use the post office in Ullin or they set up rural route delivery to replace their P.O. Box.

Tamms mayor Lamar Houston is concerned about what a service disruption would mean to elderly citizens.

“The community is made up of senior citizens and telling the senior citizens they have to go five or six miles out of the area in order to receive any mail, that bothers them,” Houston said.

Eighty-one year old William Oxford said he receives testing supplies for his diabetes twice a month. He wishes he had been given earlier notice.

“It’s a bother. I mean they should have let us know a little sooner about what’s going to take place,” Oxford said.

Houston says he asked his citizens to take things a step at a time.

“We are just telling people to hold on, not to panic and just wait things out for now,” the mayor said.

The citizens of Tamms have been instructed to use their regular mailing addresses until further notice.