By MIKE CORN

mcorn@dailynews.net

DAMAR -- Never mind its small size, Damar has no intention of quietly watching its post office close.

"We've done so much here for the survival of the town, I'd hate to see the postal service be the one to pull the rug on us," said Brian Newell, the owner of one of the two dozen businesses in the Rooks County community of about 150 people.

He's also the mayor, even though the U.S. Postal Service -- in its proposal to close the town's post office -- declared it an unincorporated community, with police protection provided by the "Brooks" County sheriff.

Damar is just one of four community post offices proposed for closing, with Edson, Herndon and Kanorado rounding out the latest list.

Community meetings for the four are:

* Damar -- 7 p.m. Oct. 12 in the Damar Community Building.

* Edson -- 6:30 p.m. Oct. 26 at Cochran Farm Supply.

* Herndon -- 6:30 p.m. Oct. 27 at Herndon Senior Citizens Center.

* Kanorado -- 6:30 p.m. Oct. 25 at Senior Citizens Center.

The four were added to the growing list Friday and Monday by the U.S. Postal Service, according to USPS spokesman Brian Sperry.

They join Park, Waldo, Paradise, Athol, Catharine, Woodston, Gaylord, Alton and Alexander as offices proposed to be closed.

USPS has identified 134 post offices in Kansas as possible locations to be closed.

Newell said he's attended other community meetings and is confident Damar is different, ready to fight the attempt to close its post office. To do that, the community is planning a pre-postal meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the St. Joseph Catholic Church basement.

He's convinced USPS doesn't understand the importance of a post office to Damar.

"A lot of these folks are older and don't have a vehicle," he said of elderly residents in Damar who walk to the post office each day to pick up their mail.

Newell said he's been in touch with Sen. Jerry Moran's office, and Damar was mentioned in an opening statement made to the Postal Regulatory Commission, which has ultimate authority over USPS.

"The people who are making these decisions don't know Damar from Washington, D.C.," Newell said.

Damar, he said, was founded by the railroad and the post office.

"They were the first two things here," he said.

Ready to celebrate its 125th anniversary, the railroad already is gone.

"We got over that," he said. "We're not going to get over the post office."

Overall, he's unhappy with how the postal service has treated Damar, which has launched efforts to revitalize and survive.

"It's really frustrating to us because of everything we've done in the last 10 to 15 years," he said. "They've got Damar down as an unincorporated city in the closing letter."

Newell also is taking aim at the postal service's push to let rural mail carriers collect cash from residents and then return the next day with money orders or stamps.

"If I was a crook, I'd be waiting in the ditches for mail carriers and I'd stick them up," he said.

It's the overall push to close small, rural offices that bothers him the most.

"I just feel the postal service looks at a small town one way only -- as a dead duck," he said.

"Damar is definitely not that way."