Yo, procrastinators, be glad you live in Lancaster County.

It's tax deadline day, and the main post office at 1400 Harrisburg Pike will be open until midnight to stamp that all- important April 15 cancellation date on your tax returns.

Sure, you say as you frantically try to find that copy of your W2 form, they do that every year, right?

Well, no, a lot of post offices across the country are cutting back, and those curbside midnight madness parties are no more.

But for those of you who are usually signing your returns as you drive into the post office at 11:59 p.m., you're in luck. The Lancaster post office will be open and folks will be there to help you out.

"We weighed the option of not staying open and decided that it's truly beneficial to serve our customers," says Francisco Molina, Lancaster's newly appointed (as of Saturday) postmaster.

"It's not as big an event as it once was because of electronic filing, but we still have people coming at the last minute."

Indeed, some post offices around the country have decided not to stay open late this year because of less demand and to save money. In Pittsburgh, for example, late snail mail filers will be out of luck. No post offices will be open late.

"As more and more people become comfortable with the technology, especially with something like filing taxes, April 15 will become more of a normal day for us," says Molina.

On its Web site, the IRS stated the total number of individual tax returns, both electronic and paper, is expected to reach about 140 million this year. And it expects e-file returns to exceed last year's record of nearly 90 million taxpayers.

Cost is an issue.

Nationally, the U.S. Postal Service, which is thinking about cutting out a day of mail delivery each week, lost $2.8 billion last year.

Molina says there will be some shifting of schedules and some overtime tonight, but he can't say at this point how much it will cost.

The Harrisburg Pike post office is the only one in the county that will remain open late. All others will have regular hours today.

 Molina, who's worked with the Postal Service for 34 years, will be on hand at the Harrisburg Pike post office to show customers how to use the automated postal center.

"My experience with this day is that it's fun," he says. "But in 10 years, it will probably be a day like any other."


Staff writer Jane Holahan can be reached at jholahan@LNPnews.com or 481-6016.