WESTBROOK, Minnesota (STPNS) --     Revere — Revere residents knew this day was coming after the post office announced closing of many small post offices.

    It is no secret the U.S. Postal Service has been losing money for some time putting them in debt. The post office has closed many offices, and let go a significant number of employees over the past few years.

    The post office is pretty much a victim of the technology boom of the internet, television, and computers.



    These days people can pay bills on line, and keep in touch via e-mail, cell phones, and Skype. With these devices one can do just about any thing, short of being there. It seems the Postal Service is trying to modernize, but is it to little to late? On the other hand there are many businesses that rely heavily on the service of the U.S. Postal Service.

    Businesses still have a need to deliver their messages via the Postal  Service, newspapers, periodicals, packages, greeting cards, and circulars to name a few.

    The post office has always been a gathering place where people would meet and sometimes visit while they picked up their mail.

    The mail is still delivered to rural customers on the mail route for free. But many businesses and individuals chose to rent a box to be able to pick up their mail earlier in the day.  While the majority of box holders now have a key for their box, some post offices like Revere still used combination locks on the boxes.

    The city  received notification a couple of weeks ago from the Postal Service that the Revere office would close on August 10. The building it was housed in needed major repairs, and the owners were not willing to invest in repairing the building.

    Meanwhile residents have the option of putting up individual  mail boxes on their property. Also the city had said they would provide an area for a cluster of mail boxes in one area. The city would keep the snow cleaned from the area. People with individual boxes on their own property would be responsible for their own snow removal.

    Residents may also rent boxes at the Walnut Grove and Lamberton Post Offices.

    Current Post Master Jeff Frank will become a PMR substitute postal employee, relieving in the area as a fill in worker.

    Those who remain on the Rural Route will be assigned new addresses, but the Revere zipcode 56166 will continue to be used.