CHAMPAIGN – Hours at the Station "A" post office at 302 E. Green St., C, will be reduced Dec. 1 to reflect traffic patterns, Champaign Postmaster Morrie Smith said.

Beginning Dec. 1, the office will be open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Current hours are 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. weekdays, so the reduction means the office will open one hour later and close a half-hour earlier than it does now.

The office will continue to be open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and closed Sundays and all federal holidays. Lobby access to post office boxes will continue to be available around-the-clock.

Smith said Station "A" is the only post office in Champaign changing its hours. Hours at the main post office on North Mattis Avenue and the downtown post office on Neil Street will remain the same.

Reduced hours at the Campustown station came as the result of traffic patterns and fewer transactions, Smith said.

He said the U.S. Postal Service is downsizing operations locally as well as nationally, partly because of the economy and as employees retire.

The Champaign post office has 148 full-time employees involved in operations, delivery and sales, down from 160 a year ago, he said.

The reduction came as a result of early-retirement incentives offered to unionized clerks and mail handlers, Smith said. Similar offers have not yet been made to unions representing city and rural carriers, he added.

Kathy Burr, acting manager of post office operations for the area, said the U.S. Postal Service has been trying to match workload with work hours.

It's also trying to match retail unit operations with the customer base better, so a few area post offices have shortened retail hours, she said.