JANESVILLE, WI — The Janesville Post Office is undergoing remodeling that’s expected to last through early August. The Post Office will remain open throughout the construction process and its hours of operation will not change. Signs will direct customers to a new retail counter area.

“Please excuse our dust while we make a more efficient use of our space,” said Postmaster Jon Buchholz.

The Janesville Post Office is being remodeled because of changing business conditions. Mail volume has decreased by more than 43 billion pieces, or 20 percent, since 2007, leaving the Postal Service with excess capacity of equipment, staff, facilities and workroom floor space to handle a declining volume of mail and retail transactions. Matching operational volume to operational capacity is an economic necessity.

According to Buchholz, remodeling the Janesville Post Office will allow the Postal Service to reduce excess workroom floor capacity and lease less space. When the construction is complete the total workroom space will be reduced from 36,500 square feet to 19,000 square feet.

The new lobby will feature 24 hour access to P.O. boxes and to the Automated Postal Center (APC), a self-service kiosk that operates similar to an automated teller machine that customers use a credit or debit card to buy stamps, weigh packages, purchase postage and renew Post Office boxes.

“This is an opportunity to give the lobby a facelift, reduce operating costs and improve customer service with 24 hour customer access,” said Buchholz.

There will be some changes for customers to navigate. Mail collection boxes on the island in the front parking lot will be moved to the rear parking lot. P.O. box customers will also be assigned new box numbers to accommodate a new P.O. box section.

“I will work with customers to make the transition as smooth as possible,” said Buchholz.

The remodeling is expected to save the Postal Service almost $3.7 million over a 10 year period.

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A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 150 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. We’re everywhere so you can be anywhere: www.uspseverywhere.com. With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $67 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 29th in the 2010 Fortune 500. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency six consecutive years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.