KTKA

"I think that just because a ball is rolling downhill does not mean it can't be stopped and I intend to stop this," Randolph city council member Donna Baer said.

Baer is a resident of Randolph and wasn't happy when she received a letter from the United States Postal Service saying they might suspend their services to the town.

The lease for the current building expires July 31. The owner of the building and the postal service can't agree on a new lease.

"The disturbing thing that we learned was that the postal service had abandoned negotiations for service for this building," she said.

At a town meeting, the postal service told the 60 residents in attendance, who were all in favor of keeping the Randolph Post Office, one option was to move the service to Olsburg.

Randolph residents would have to drive 9 miles to pick up and drop off their mail in Olsburg.

However, for others, the drive would be longer.

"I don't think they could have thought of anything any stupider," Louise Schultes said.

Schultes lives in northern Riley County and there are 15 miles between her and the Olsburg Post Office.

"I sure wish that we could keep our post office one way or another," she said.

The National League of Postmasters say suspending service to the town of 184 is illegal.

"This did not meet the criteria for closure," Baer explained.

So with the help of Representative Lynn Jenkins, negotiations have started again.

"This battle is bigger than Randolph, KS," Baer said. "This battle is any small community with a post office."

She says Randolph has been growing and worries that if the post office is closed, it will threaten their economy.

"Generally speaking, if you abandon a central focus of a community, you're giving a death knoll to a community," Baer said. "I don't want to see my community die."