Cris Ritchie | Hazard Herald

Nick Walker with the USPS (left) and former Krypton postmaster Delbert Eversole officially opened the village post office at Krypton with a ribbon cutting ceremony last week.

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KRYPTON – Perry County’s first village post office is open for business.

Nick Walker, the coordinator of village post offices for the U.S. Postal Service’s Kentuckiana District, was on hand with former Krypton postmaster Delbert Eversole Friday for the grand opening of the new village post office, located at Eversole’s grocery store in Krypton.

The Krypton post office, while currently operating full time Monday through Saturday, is slated for reduced hours by the beginning of 2013. Having a village post office at Eversole’s store, which is located in the same building as the post office, will mean that postal customers in Krypton will still have access to USPS products even when the main office is closed.

“With the reduction of hours in Krypton, which in the end will be four hours a day, the village post office is going to actually kick in and give the customers of Krypton more of an opportunity to access stamps and mail packages, as well as patronize Delbert’s store here, Eversole Grocery,” Walker said.

The Krypton office is the 16th opened in Kentucky so far, and the postal service has plans to implement similar efforts in communities where post offices will experience a reduction in hours.

The postal service has for the past few years battled dwindling revenues, and last year announced the impending closure of thousands of smaller offices across the nation, including several here in Perry County, to save money. Those plans were eventually put on hold. The USPS is now contracting with local businesses like Eversole Grocery and opening village post offices in an attempt to cut costs.

Customers will be able to purchase stamps at Eversole’s grocery store, and also drop packages via the USPS’s flat rate boxes. Walker noted that a carrier will pick up the packages daily.