The New Castle Post Office is on a list of about 50 post offices that could be closed later this year.

The list was released this week by the U.S. Postal Service as a companion to a larger national list of almost 700 post offices. Town hall meetings on post office closures could start in November.

William Mitchell, the U.S. Postal Service district manager for Alabama, said the affected areas won’t stop getting mail delivery. The plan is to consolidate smaller post offices with larger ones, such as the recent consolidations of Morris with the Gardendale Post Office and Trafford with the Warrior Post Office. In both of those cases, no layoffs happened. Postal Service employees were moved to the larger offices, and Morris kept its postmaster. He said mail carriers and other non-supervisor positions were probably safe, but managers might see some layoffs in the future.

The consolidations are meant to be a way to cut costs and eventually make room to expand services in other areas, such as put postal service retail locations in places like libraries and retail outlets. Mitchell specifically mentioned Office Depot as a private business that could have a postal service presence.

Mitchell said mail volume has declined over the years; a report by the post office shows a $1 billion reduction in in revenue from its 2009 fiscal year to its 2010 fiscal year.