U.S. Postal Service officials announced Thursday night in Tacoma that no Washington post offices will be closed, at least for now.

Earlier this week, the Postal Service announced that six Washington post offices, including two in Tacoma, would be closed due to economic pressure. But after sending out surveys and listening to input from customers, they determined that the offices were too important to the communities to close.

�The community won, and that�s what�s important,� Tacoma Postmaster Robert Galtrude said after a public meeting at the Tacoma Public Library�s main branch. �We�re not going to close either office.�

The two candidates were the Martin Luther King Jr. Way office on the Hilltop and the South Tacoma office on South Warner Street.

About 20 Hilltop residents came to the meeting Thursday night to show support for their local post office. Some came with stories, others with business ideas.

Hilltop activist Janis Gbalah came with sore feet and 400 signatures. For the past few days, she has canvassed local businesses and talked to people to convince them to show their support for the post office. It is a cornerstone of the Hilltop community and important to its customers, so it needed to stay, she said.

"The Hilltop has seen a renaissance. You can see the change," she said. "This is the last thing we needed."

She talked about the importance of the office at a city council meeting, and presented the signatures to Postal Service officials Thursday night.

"It was just a real passion for me," she said.

As the meeting opened, they heard the news that their local office on Martin Luther King Jr. Way will not close.

"It is a tremendous victory," said Eric Alozie, who has started his days at the office for the past nine years. "The post office is important to the community.

"This gives you faith in grass-roots activity."

But Postal Service officials warned that the agency is still in a financial crisis, and cuts will have to come from somewhere. The Washington offices are safe for now, but if things get worse, they could return to the cutting board.

The Postal Service faces a $7 billion shortfall this year, which is attributed to the nation's recession and a move by consumers toward electronic mail. About 700 post offices were announced as candidates for closure, and officials said about 1,000 would eventually be closed. But that was before most of the community input showed the importance of some of the neighborhood post offices.

"We're in a rough trough in the economy," Galtrude said. "But we will get through it."

The two Tacoma offices were listed along with the Midway office in Kent, the Federal Station in Seattle, one in Spokane and one in Yakima.

No other cuts have been announced, and the officials at the Tacoma meeting Thursday night couldn't speculate what they would be.

A meeting to discuss the South Tacoma post office is still scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Tacoma Public Library's main branch, and Postal Service employees will be there to answer questions.

Brian Everstine: 253-597-8374

brian.everstine@thenewstribune.com