Dear editor,

My name is Jamie Stockman, and my town needs your help. I live in Uniontown, population approximately 2,600. I received a letter today telling me that my bank — the only bank in town — will be closed on Wednesday, June 24 at 2 p.m. It stated that my account would be transferred to the Montgomery branch of Cadence Bank where I could begin banking.

Do they realize Uniontown is 80 miles from Montgomery and the bank’s location is probably an additional 20 miles or more?

We are a very poor town located in the Black Belt and the nearest bank to us in any direction would be at least 20 miles.

Most of the population is poor and probably 40 percent don’t even own a car. They would have to hire someone to take them to a bank 20 miles away to cash their check, which would take money from them that they need for the barest necessities.

A lot of them can walk to our bank and do their banking at no cost to them.

We have a large number of elderly and disabled people that came to the bank and are given “curb service” by the bank staff, as our bank is in an old building and has no drive-in window.

We have a few businesses that need cash to operate on and a place to make a night deposit when they close.

We have a couple of businesses that employ quite a few people who get paid on Friday and come to the bank to cash their payroll checks. We need to keep our bank open!

Please help us save our bank. We can’t afford to lose it.

 

Jamie Stockman

Uniontown