Postal

As the U.S. Postal Service considers closing hundreds of post offices nationwide to save money, one question looms, especially for those 25 and younger: Who'd notice? During her freshman year at the University of Richmond, Kaitlyn McDowell enjoyed receiving the occasional letter with a care package from younger cousins. Beyond that, though, the 19-year-old from Ellicott City mostly corresponds by e-mail, text messaging and social networking, like many of her generation. "It's easier.

Maryland: Acquisitions NexCen closes deal for MaggieMoo's NexCen Brands Inc., a brand acquisition company, said yesterday that it has closed on a deal to buy ice cream shop companies MaggieMoo's International LLC and Marble Slab Creamery Inc. for $37.1 million. Columbia-based MaggieMoo's operates 184 stores in 36 states and Houston-based Marble Slab currently has 370 stores in 35 states, Canada and the United Arab Emirates. Meredith Cohn Earnings Laureate profit increases 29% Laureate Education Inc., the operator of online and foreign universities that's facing stockholder opposition to a proposed $3.2 billion buyout, said yesterday its profit rose 19 percent in the fourth quarter.

THE PROBLEM -- Patrons of the Brooklyn Curtis Bay branch of the U.S. Postal Service, which sits off busy Governor Ritchie Highway in Anne Arundel County, have complained for years about a lack of parking, says Charles Schoenhaar, who alerted Watchdog to the situation. Back in 2005, then-Del. John R. Leopold, who is now the county executive, wrote post office officials on behalf of his disgruntled constituents. THE BACKSTORY -- Watchdog visited the post office on a recent afternoon and witnessed parking mayhem.

The Baltimore branch of the U.S. Postal Service is collecting back-to-school supplies and clothing for students ages 5 through 17 who live in city shelters. Customers can donate items at any area post office in a 212 ZIP code area. Containers will be set up to collect donations. The Postal Service said it is partnering with the Preston Mitchum Jr. Foundation, which will distribute the items to area shelters. The foundation is named after a news photographer in Baltimore who, according to the institute's Web site, promotes the use of documentaries to highlight tragedies.

No bigger than a master bedroom, the tiny Ferndale Rural Postal Station could have inspired the phrase "the size of a postage stamp." Inside is a cozy conglomeration of packaging supplies and needlepoint art and crocheted baby afghans sold by 27-year manager Winnie List, along with small-town hospitality and convenience. When she shuts the post office's doors tomorrow, it will be for the last time. After 30 years as U.S. Postal Service contractors, Charles and Helen Weishaar have decided to close the post office.

When William L. Ridenour was sworn in yesterday as Baltimore's postmaster, it was the high point of a 27-year career that began when he became a letter carrier and steadily rose through the ranks of the U.S. Postal Service. Ridenour, who was born and raised in Baltimore, is the first Baltimorean to serve as the city's postmaster since 1966. It's a huge leap from the days when he endured rain, snow and barking dogs to deliver the mail in city neighborhoods. "This was really the job I strived for since I was a letter carrier in Baltimore," said Ridenour, who lives in Essex with his wife of 23 years, Anna.

The greatest snowstorm ever recorded in Virginia and Maryland began on this date in 1772, piling up 30 to 36 inches. Meteorologists call it the "Washington and Jefferson Snowstorm" because both future presidents noted it in their diaries. On the 27th, George Washington wrote, the snow "kept constantly at it the whole day, with the wind hard and cold from the northward." It continued on the 28th "with equal violence, the wind ... drifting the snow into high banks." Travel halted for two weeks, postal service for five.

On March 22, 1985, the U.S. Postal Service issued the third in a series of commemorative stamps recognizing folk art. Included in this series representing decoy carving was an image of a canvasback duck carved by Harford County native Robert Franklin McGaw Jr. Born on Spesutie Island in 1879, McGaw served in the Maryland National Guard until 1918. He married the daughter of the captain of a famous gunning scow the Reckless. It is thought he began carving soon after his discharge. In 1919 the McGaws bought a property in Havre de Grace and opened a shop to sell his decoys.

Erma Armstrong, 89, retired postal workerErma Armstrong, a retired Postal Service employee, died of a heart ailment Sunday at Liberty Medical Center. She was 89 and lived in Forest Park.Born in Baltimore, the former Erma Groomes attended local schools and worked at the May Co. department store on Howard Street before joining the Postal Service in 1943. She was a clerk at the downtown post office at Calvert and Fayette streets and retired in 1970.She married her first husband, Ernest J. Connor, in 1925.

VATICAN CITY -- For some Italians, dropping an important letter in the mailbox is cause for a quick prayer. Mail sent through Italy's famously unreliable postal service can take weeks or months to get where it's going.But in the heart of Rome is a post office that handles mail efficiently, with no need for divine intervention.Vatican City, the 108-acre island of Roman Catholic Church rule inside the city limits of Rome, is a virtually self-sufficient nation-state with a police force and a pharmacy, a diplomatic staff, a supermarket and a range of other services available to anyone who lives or works within its confines.

During the health care debates, a culprit emerged as proof that the federal government is anti-competitive, wasteful and inefficient: The U.S. Postal Service. Why hate on the post office? The USPS is America's second-largest employer, with 34,000 facilities and the nation's largest vehicular fleet. It's also on track to lose $7 billion this year. Conservatives say the underlying problem is the post office's monopolistic nature. As the only carrier permitted to deliver non-urgent mail to households, the USPS' lack of competition, coupled with its salary, benefit and pension obligations to unionized postal workers, make for weak capitalistic tea. Approximately eighty percent of all expenditures go to employee pay and benefits.

Ruth H. Williams, a retired Baltimore County postal worker who enjoyed painting and sewing, died of congestive heart failure Monday at the Glen Meadows Retirement Community. She was 93. Ruth Houck, the daughter of a salesman and homemaker, was born in Baltimore and raised on Belgian Avenue. After graduating from Eastern High School in 1934, she went to work in the payroll and executive offices of Hochschild Kohn & Co. "She had studied fashion design at the Maryland Institute and had won a full scholarship to William & Mary to study art but couldn't because of the Depression," said a daughter, Christine Williams Bennett of Baldwin.

As the U.S. Postal Service considers closing hundreds of post offices nationwide to save money, one question looms, especially for those 25 and younger: Who'd notice? During her freshman year at the University of Richmond, Kaitlyn McDowell enjoyed receiving the occasional letter with a care package from younger cousins. Beyond that, though, the 19-year-old from Ellicott City mostly corresponds by e-mail, text messaging and social networking, like many of her generation. "It's easier.

We're taking care of General Motors. The blob known as Citigroup will soon be slimmer and less dangerous. Another 20th-century business must now check in to 21st-century fat camp. The U.S. mail is losing billions. It's at "high risk" of failing financially, say government auditors. It may raise stamp prices again even though it just did. It's talking about closing post offices, including five in metro Baltimore. You've heard before about Postal Service budget crises. This is the big one. To deal with a plunge in mail volume that began in 2007, the U.S. Postal Service is about to become a very different part of the economy and a different part of our lives from the one we have known.

George "Hobey" Hammen, a retired police officer and postal worker in Baltimore, died Saturday. The Joppa resident was 83. Mr. Hammen served in the Navy during World War II and in the Naval Reserve. He then became a Baltimore police officer during the 1950s. After leaving the police force, he worked as a postal carrier for 20 years. A memorial service will be held 7 p.m. Tuesday at McComas Funeral Homes, 1317 Cokesbury Road, Abingdon. Mr. Hammen is survived by his wife of 62 years, Amelia "Honey" Hammen.

The names and Social Security numbers of about 8,000 state employees and retirees were in a report "lost in the mail" this month, raising concerns about identity theft and questions about why sensitive information was sent through the postal service rather than electronically. Maryland officials say there is no evidence that the information was stolen or misused, but the Department of Budget and Management has suggested compromised employees place a "fraud alert" with national credit-rating agencies as a precaution.

Raymond Carl Crawford, a retired postal worker and Roman Catholic deacon, died Dec. 23 at St. Agnes Hospital after suffering a heart attack. The Woodlawn-area resident was 77. Born in Baltimore and raised on Port Street, he attended the old St. Andrew's Parochial School and was a 1951 graduate of Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical School. He served in the Navy aboard the USS Cadmus in Korea. After his military service, he worked for a year at the old Western Maryland Dairy and then joined the U.S. Postal Service, working in the special-delivery mail service.

George W. Barenz, a retired postal worker who for years gladdened the hearts of Harford County children at Christmastime with his portrayal of Santa Claus, died of pneumonia Sept. 28 at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air. He was 86. Mr. Barenz was born and raised in Chicago, where he graduated from public schools. During World War II, he served in ground support with the Army Air Corps. After the war, Mr. Barenz moved to Baltimore and joined the U.S. Postal Service in 1947. He worked as a letter carrier in Parkville for more than 30 years until retiring in the 1980s.

It's about to get harder to mail a letter. Many of the familiar blue mailboxes in Central Maryland will be casualties of a U.S. Postal Service effort to become more efficient. More than 800 of the boxes have been removed in the past decade from Cumberland to the Eastern Shore, and now 350 more will be uprooted. As the post office struggles financially, it won't pass up savings in its gasoline expenses that come with emptying fewer mailboxes. But the real force behind the need to decommission some boxes is the declining volume of mail dropped into them, as more people stay in touch and pay bills electronically.

On August 13, 1789, John H. Barney was appointed postmaster for Havre de Grace. Postal service has been continuous in Havre de Grace since then. However, records show that service began in that area much earlier. In 1728, a postal route was established from Philadelphia to Annapolis by way of the western shores of the Chesapeake Bay. Then in 1732, The American Weekly Mercury describes a route running from Philadelphia to Edenton, N.C., with a stop in Susquehanna (now Havre de Grace). Susquehanna is again noted in 1763, in a table of postage rates issued by Benjamin Franklin.