NEWSOMS—Evelyn Carr has no problem with the changes expected at the Newsoms post office.

Carr learned Monday that the Main Street post office would be closed from noon to 2 p.m. weekdays starting in January. The post office currently closes daily at noon for one hour.

“It’s what I voted on,” said Carr, a 65-year-old retired nurse’s aide who gets her mail from a post office box in Newsoms.

She was among 40 who gathered outside the Newsoms post office, where Cindy Wheeler, operation support specialist with the U.S. Postal Service in Richmond, announced that the two-hour lunchtime closing would be the only change.

“We are not here to close the post office,” Wheeler said. “It will stay open. There will be reduced hours.”

The post office is among eight in Western Tidewater targeted for changes to save money. Others are in Boykins, Sedley, Zuni, Carrsville, Isle of Wight, Branchville and Drewryville.

The Postal Service mailed surveys to 519 homes and businesses served by the Newsoms office. Customers were asked if they would rather have reduced hours of service, give up post office boxes in exchange for rural delivery, have a local business offer minimal postal services or see the post office close.

Eighty-seven percent favored reduced hours.

Rural routes and 24-hour access to post office boxes will continue, Wheeler said.

The Rev. Jason Wise, pastor of Newsoms Baptist Church, was happy to hear the post office would remain in town.

“I think it’s wonderful,” Wise said. “As a small church we don’t have people in the office every day. We need to have a post office box. This will enable us to keep it here.”

Southampton County Newsoms District Supervisor Glenn Updike also was pleased.

“Great news,” Updike said. “We haven’t lost anything.”