The town of Gallion had a town hall meeting at the fire station Monday night to discuss the future operating hours of the post office in Gallion, and decided to make the hours from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The U.S. Postal Service is making cutbacks because they have lost money in each of the last seven years, and have been forced to cut 28,000 jobs nationwide in the past year.

Greg Connor, the manager of Post 2 for the Postal Service in Alabama oversees 115 offices, 67 of which are being impacted by the cutbacks. Some offices were cut back to six hours, some to four hours and some to two, and some closed completely.

“We are going to have a realignment of hours here in Gallion,” he said. “We’re cutting back to six hours a day in this office, which is better than it could have been.”

The Gallion post office is currently open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with a break from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The new hours, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., will be continuous. They are expected to go into effect in about a month and a half.

Connor said that in all, about 280 offices in Alabama are being impacted by the cutbacks.

“Times have changed for us,” he said. “We’ve never been in the business of closing; we’ve always been opening. They’re looking at the organization as a whole with the cuts, not just the bottom.”

He added that even cities like Huntsville and Tuscaloosa are seeing these cutbacks.

Of the 30 people in attendance at the meeting, 29 voted for the hours to be from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

“I’m so glad I’m here to tell you that your post office is staying open,” Connor said.