By MIKE CORN

mcorn@dailynews.net

ALEXANDER -- Residents here know they are outgunned by the massive U.S. Postal Service, but they weren't about to let their post office close without the best fight they can wage.

That's why nearly a third of the residents living in the oldest community in Rush County signed off on a three-page protest -- citing 12 reasons not to close the post office.

In a bit of irony, the petition was left on the counter of the Alexander Post Office, where it was signed by 21 of the city's 65 residents. A second petition was left at the only other business in Alexander, Mid-State Farmers Cooperative.

The protest was forwarded to the Postal Regulatory Commission, which will review the decision by the U.S. Postal Service.

"We sent it certified mail so we knew they got it," said Alice Horacek, who took it upon herself to prepare the document. "I wanted Washington to know the Alexander Post Office and Alexander, Kan., wasn't going to roll over and play dead."

Horacek certainly isn't.

Something of a self-styled activist, Horacek won't back down from a cause she believes in, whether it's saving the post office or saving the town's only church, now with only eight members.

Still, she's not holding out much hope the petition will be able to save the facility.

"Slim to none," she admits.

Already, the woman running the post office is getting everything in order for the closing, which isn't supposed to come until sometime in February.

"We wanted to give it a shot," Horacek said of trying to save the post office. "That's where we get our local news. The newspaper comes out once a week -- supposed to be here on Thursday and sometimes it gets here on Monday.

Dale Whittom, a member of Alexander's city council, suspects the effort won't be successful either.

He was the first person to sign the petition left at the post office, and he's quick to defend the continued existence of the facility and the community.

But that's the dilemma, fighting for the office to remain open but lacking the resources to get it done.

"I know it's a rural area ... and we don't have the numbers," he said.

He understands the need to cut costs, but doesn't think it has to be done on the backs of rural residents.

If Alexander's office is closed, mail will be delivered by rural mail carrier.

But if a person needs to visit a post office, he said, it's a 7-mile trip to Bazine and 13 miles to Rush Center.

"But if someone's not going that way, you have to make a special trip," he said.

Many of Alexander's residents are elderly and either don't or rarely drive.

"The post office, we'd love to keep it open, trying to fight a little bit," Whittom said. "But there's only so much fight."

With so few residents, the community already pitches together to keep everything running.

Whittom, for example, in addition to his city council seat and a full-time job in the oil patch, also serves as the local fire chief, as well as an emergency medical technician.

"We don't have all the nice equipment, but we do what we can," he said of the fire department.

He also helps with the city's sewer system when needed, and the city is pinning hopes on a new water system to prevent problems.

"It's going to be tough," he said of the nearly $750,000 project. "Our water rates went up. Yeah, it's going to take 40 years to pay it off, but what do you do?"

For Horacek, it's all about doing what's right.

"I just wanted to let the people express their opinions and let Washington know Alexander's not going to lay down and play dead."