Area Plans for 4th of July Holiday

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ It is rare that a federal holiday falls on the weekend, and because of the Fourth of July falling on Saturday next week, the U.S. Postal Service, the cities, the county and the newspaper are adjusting their schedules.

Post Office--The Du Quoin Post Office will close at 2 p.m. on Friday, July 3, 2009 to allow retail employees to spend more time with their families. Many smaller plan to close at noon. In Du Quoin, noon will be the last collection for mail deposited in blue collection boxes that day. All collection points that have a regularly scheduled collection time prior to 2 p.m. (noon) on Friday, July 3rd will be collected as scheduled. Regular mail delivery for July 3 will be unaffected by the change. "As many businesses close early on July 3rd," said Postmaster Jimmie Davis, "the number of customers visiting our lobbies greatly diminishes.We view this as an opportunity to afford retail employees more time with their families by closing retail operations in most of our locations early on July 3rd. Post office retail counters will be closed on Saturday, July 4 and there will be no mail delivery. Counters will resume their regular operations on Monday, July 6.

City of Du Quoin--The offices of the city clerk and water department will be closed on Monday, July 6.

City of Pinckneyville--The city of Pinckneyville's offices will be closed on Friday, July 3.

Perry County Government Building--All Perry County business offices will be closed on Friday, July 3rd.

Du Quoin Evening Call--The newspaper will publish both on Friday, July 3 and on Monday, July 6, however, the newspaper's offices will be closed on Friday, July 3.

Banks--Most banks have indicated to the newspaper that they will close on Saturday, July 4th.