The Brookhaven Post Office will have extra personnel on handWednesday to handle an expected influx of last-minutetaxpayers.

Postmaster Keith Rushing said both terminals at the BrookhavenStreet office would be manned throughout the day, while bothterminals at the downtown office – where traffic is slower – wouldbe manned most of the day. He said the extra manpower would bebrought in to handle long lines of taxpayers who have waited untilthe April 15 deadline to mail their tax forms.

“The ones who are paying will be the ones who run in here at thelast minute,” Rushing said. “You have procrastinators who want tokeep their money that one extra day, and they wait until that lastday.”

Rushing said some of the Jackson-area post offices would be openlonger hours Wednesday – including the office at 401 East SouthSt., which will be open far into the night.

Brookhaven locations, though, will operate at normal times. TheBrookhaven Street office will be open from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30p.m., while the downtown office will operate from 8:30 a.m. until 5p.m.

The offices likely don’t need to remain open any longer, Rushingsaid, because the number of people filing tax returns through thepostal service is declining annually as online filing becomes thenorm. Last year, the Brookhaven Street office had approximately 520total visitors and the downtown office had roughly 450 – not all ofwhom were taxpayers, he said.

Still, April 15 is always a busy day, Rushing said.

“Hopefully it won’t be as bad this year as it’s been being, butwe’ll probably be lined up a few times,” he said. “You really don’tknow until it gets here.”