Three Months Later, Johnston City Still Waits on Its Post Office
Residents and city officials say answers about the closure remain scarce
By Verna Slate, Williamson County Bureau
JOHNSTON CITY, Ill. — The lobby lights have been dark for more than three months now, and folks in Johnston City still don't know when they'll get their post office back.
City officials and residents told the Southern Illinoisan they're still waiting for clear answers on when the facility might reopen. For a town this size, the post office isn't just a counter to buy stamps — it's a stop on the daily route, a place where people run into neighbors, a marker of whether a small town is still being taken seriously by the institutions that serve it.
No timeline has been given. That silence is its own kind of message, and it's one small-town post offices across this country have heard before. When a federal agency goes quiet, the people left waiting are the ones who can least afford to be forgotten.
The American Times will keep watching the mailbox on this one.
— Compiled from reporting by the Southern Illinoisan.
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