ANCHORAGE-Rural Alaskan villages can breathe a sigh of relief, as all rural Alaskan Post Offices listed on the United States Postal Service's chopping block have been removed from closure consideration.

Only five Post Offices in Alaska are still being considered on the USPS study list for closure, and none of them are in rural communities. The remaining post offices under consideration are, two in Anchorage, including the Elmendorf location on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson and the Anchorage Postal Store in the 5th Avenue Mall. The other three are at Fort Wainwright and Eielson Air Force Base in Fairbanks, and in the town of Douglas near Juneau.

Of the removal of rural post offices from the list, Senator Murkowski had this to say, “I appreciate that as the post office has been running numbers to find efficiencies, it found that many post offices originally considered for closure or transformation to the Village Post Office model are more than statistics or traffic rates – they’re the focal points for many small Alaskan communities.”

Juneau residents came out in force to urge the postal service not to close the Douglas post office on Wednesday night. Over 150 people packed the Mt Jumbo gym in support of keeping the Douglas post office operational. While many live on the Juneau side of the bridge between Douglas and Juneau, many cross the bridge to Douglas to check their mail. Many sited parking conditions on the Juneau side for their decision.