Georgia Democratic Gov. Jimmy Carter officially announces his candidacy for president in Atlanta on Dec. 12, 1974. (AP file photo — BJ)

SARANAC LAKE — Federal agencies will close on Thursday for a national day of mourning after the death of former President Jimmy Carter. There will be no mail delivery on that day, banks are not expected to close and prisons should be staffed as normal.

Carter died on Dec. 29. He was 100 and had spent the last two years of his life in hospice care at his home in Georgia. President Joe Biden signed an executive order the next day announcing the day of observance during Carter’s funeral in Washington D.C.

Not all federal employees are exempt from working, since some are deemed essential.

The heads of each federal agency can determine that certain offices remain open or that certain types of employees must still work, for “reasons of national security, defense or other public need,” according to the executive order.

The United States Postal Service will suspend mail delivery, retail services and administrative office activity.

“There will be limited package delivery on Jan. 9 to ensure the organization does not experience any impacts to its package delivery operations that may negatively affect customers or business partners,” according to the National Post Mail Handlers Union.

The Enterprise was not able to reach Postmaster Roberta Bates by deadline on Friday for more information on how this will impact USPS customers.

Because the Enterprise is chiefly delivered through the USPS to mailboxes for residential customers, there will not be a paper on Thursday, but there will be one when service resumes on Friday.

The Enterprise was not able to reach representatives from U.S. Customs and Border Protection about potential impacts to the border crossings into Quebec and Ontario in nearby Canada.

Currently, there don’t appear to be any impacts.

Banks are not required to close, and local bank employees currently say they haven’t heard any plans to close as information trickles down to the local level.

“As of right now, if we do (close), we don’t know it yet. But we don’t think we are closing,” Adirondack Bank Teller Cassandra LaPierre said.

They might get notified after the weekend, she said, but they aren’t anticipating a notification.

People should check with their banks if they are unsure if they’ll be able to bank on Thursday.

Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesman Scott Taylor said the FCI Ray Brook medium security prison will not have reduced staffing on Thursday.

“(It) will be operated just as any other federally identified holiday,” Taylor wrote in an email.

Visitation availability on that day is currently unclear, but updated visitation statuses will be made at www.bop.gov/locations/institutions/rbk.

The New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ will close on Thursday to honor the former president.

Carter was the U.S.’s 39th president from 1977 to 1981. After his presidency, he was known for his expansive humanitarian work, which earned him a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. Some of his largest efforts were founding the Carter Center nonprofit which addresses human rights, diseases and international politics, and his work growing the home-building nonprofit Habitat for Humanity, including attending home buildings into his 90s.

The last former U.S. president to die was George H. W. Bush in 2018.

American flags have been flying at half-staff in honor of Carter since his death and will continue to do so until Jan. 28.