About 30 concerned Bryn Mawr residents descended on Loma Linda’s Barton Road Post Office on Wednesday after they were notified that the community’s 116-year-old post office was on the chopping block.

As a cost-cutting measure, the US Postal Service is looking into shutting down operations at the older and smaller brick building on Newport Avenue. For years, the office has provided cost-free P.O. boxes to Bryn Mawr residents. There has never been street delivery. Residents are accustomed to picking up their mail at the small white brick building.

On Wednesday, postal officials answered questions and tried to ease worries over the possible change. No official decision to close the office has been made, said Ken Boyd, a manager with the US Postal Service business service network operations.

“A decision has to come from headquarters in Washington D.C.,” Boyd said. “My guess is, it’s four to six months down the road if it happens.”

If it does come down, residents will be given a 90 day notice of the closure, Boyd said.

If it happens, the Loma Linda office is ready to make the change, said Loma Linda's Acting Postmaster Dan Mesa.

Mail will be delivered to cluster boxes placed throughout the community, Mesa said. Residents will be able to drive by and pick up their mail. And they will retain their zip code unless they decide to rent a P.O. Box from the Barton Road office. Then they will have to use the 92354 Loma Linda zip code.

“I think this is sort of a bonus,” Boyd said. “This is a gain for you all because the mail will be delivered closer to home.”

The change would not happen immediately. First class mail will be forwarded for a year or more, Mesa said.

“We’ll keep this system for as long as it takes,” he said.

Some residents remained skeptical.

“I think I’m just going to get a P.O Box,” said Jessica Davila Cardiel, a Bryn Mawr resident.  “It’s just inconvenient. There are people who are disabled who can’t access some sidewalks. They can get to the post office because they have ramps.”

Residents were also concerned about the safety of the cluster boxes. Many of the community’s residents are older and reliant on disability, social security and unemployment checks.

Mesa and Boyd reassured them and said making a change is not a choice they made lightly.

“I should have started off saying that we wish things were different,” Boyd said. “We wish it were the case that we could have a post office in every community and that that post office would be vibrantly used often and our retail sales were dynamic. That’s not the case nowadays."