Canalou residents worried post office may close

CANALOU, Mo. -- Canalou residents are doing all they can to save their post office, which is in an old schoolhouse that also houses city offices.

"There was a mention that they possibly would be closing our post office because of security -- they don't think the post office is secure enough," said Thelma Slayton, city collector. "It's just a rumor; we do not know for sure they are going to close it."

In the meantime, resident Donna Williams has started a petition to keep the post office open.

"I don't know what else to do at this point. I know a lot of people here would be devastated if that post office closed," Williams said. "We're a small town -- there's about 325 people in town, at most. A lot of the people in town are disabled, elderly, poor; they're not able to go to the next town over for their mail."

There is no home delivery in Canalou, she said. "Everything is picked up at the post office."

Williams said even FedEx and UPS often deliver to the post office "because a lot of the people here don't have numbers on their houses. They get lost, so it's just easier to go to the post office."

So far nearly a third of the town have signed the petition, she said.

The security concerns were raised after the building was burglarized the night of Nov. 29 or early Nov. 30, Slayton said.

"This is the second break-in we've had. We also had one in August," she said. "At that time the only thing that was taken we could find was my petty cash. We had a camera surveillance system with a DVR. They left the cameras but took the DVR."

Slayton said the second burglary is believed to have been more successful.

"New Madrid County and the postal people are not really telling us anything," she said. "We really don't know how the investigation is going; we just know it's ongoing."

New Madrid County Sheriff Terry Stevens said the break-in is being investigated with the postal inspector's office but that no arrests have been made.

The deputy heading the county's investigation was not available for comment.

Postmaster Melinda Sevic said she could not comment.

The city's aldermen discussed options during their regular meeting Monday, according to Slayton.

"We're looking at trying to make it a safer and more secure building," she said. "We're going to do our best to keep our post office. That's all we have here."