With the United States Postal Service experiencing deep budget problems, the Bronx could lose up to 17 post offices.

State Senator Gustavo Rivera conducted a survey of post office usage and how individuals would deal with the potential closures. The survey resulted in over 90 percent of people opposing the closing of the two locations in the 33rd Senate District, one in Norwood and another in Bedford Park.

There is a moratorium on post office closures, but both the Botanical Station Post Office at 2963 Webster Ave. and the Van Cott Post Office at 3102 Decatur Ave. are slated to be shut down.

Rivera’s office mailed out more than 60,000 surveys and received 1,171 responses. About 34.8 percent of respondents (364 total), said they were customers of Botanical Station or Van Cott branches. Of those respondents, 90 percent said they strongly opposed the closing of those two branches.

“The results of the survey of residents of the Bedford Park and Norwood area were very clear: closing the Van Cott and Botanical [Station] post offices would be an extreme hardship, especially for the elderly and disabled who live in the area,” Rivera said in a statement. “The majority of the individuals surveyed use the post office at least once a day and many individuals who claimed to go to the post office almost daily also spoke to the need to keep the post office open because it is the way they pay their bills through the post office through money orders. The goal of this survey was to arm the U.S. Postal Service with the information they need to keep the Van Cott and Botanical Garden post offices open.”

Ed. note: A version of this article appeared in the May 31-June 13 print edition of the Norwood News.