Officials from the US Postal Service plan to attend meetings across the country to determine new hours of operation for post offices everywhere. In Nebraska the first meetings will take place in, Bee, Brownville, Nemaha, Elk Creek, Endicott and Swanton. The meetings are an effort to reach profitability by reducing costs by $22.5 billion by 2016 according to the US Postal Service in April 2012:

  The plan requires the reduction of annual costs by $22.5 billion by 2016. This cost reduction is necessary given projected declines in First-Class Mail volume, which has already dropped by 25 percent since 2006. However, the Postal Service can achieve only a portion of these reductions under current business model constraints; legislative changes are needed to achieve the full cost reductions and to provide the Postal Service with the flexibility needed to adjust more quickly to our customers’ changing mailing and shipping needs.

The last year of profitability for the USPS was in 2006 with $.9 billion, in 2007 the postal service began making payments of $5.5 billion to prefund future retiree benefits.

The post office in North Platte isn’t among towns listed for a proposed change in operation hours. Post offices in Lincoln County include…

Hershey: A proposed reduction of 2 hours: (Currently) Mon-Fri: 8a-12p -1:30-4p Sat: 8a-10a Sun: Closed

Maxwell: A proposed reduction of 4 hours (Currently)Mon-Thu: 9a-1:30p Fri: 9a-1p Sat: 9a-11a Sun: Closed

Brady: A proposed reduction of 4 hours (Currently) Mon-Fri: 7:45a-12:30p-1:30p-4p Sat: 7:45-9:15a Sun: Closed

Wellfleet: A proposed reduction of 2 hours (Currently) Mon-Fri: 7;30a-12:00p-12:45-3:45p Sat: 8a-9a Sun: Closed

According to the Associated Press, the postal service expects to record $15 billion in losses this year, and in the past month, it missed two payments totaling $11.1 billion for future retiree benefits.