On Tuesday the US Postal Service’s headquarters in Washington, DC issued a statement announcing that, in response to a request made by multiple U.S. senators, it agreed to delay the closing or consolidation of any of the proposed 3,700 post offices or 252 mail processing facilities until May 15, 2012.
In the mean time, the review process – including public input meetings – will continue, according to the statement.
“The Postal Service hopes this period will help facilitate the enactment of comprehensive postal legislation,” the agency said. “Given the Postal Service’s financial situation and the loss of mail volume, the Postal Service must continue to take all steps necessary to reduce costs and increase revenue.”
The US Postal Service’s announcement “shows that more input is needed before decisions are made,” Congressman Mike Thompson said Wednesday.
In September the US Postal Service had announced it would begin the process of studying the possible closures of 252 of its 487 processing facilities nationwide in an effort to address dropping mail volumes and a $5.1 billion loss last year, as Lake County News has reported.
Among the facilities being studied was the North Bay Processing and Distribution Center in Petaluma, which serves areas including Lake County.
That facility’s operations were proposed to be folded into those of the Oakland Processing and Distribution Center, which would delay local deliveries. A consolidation study suggested the action could save $2.5 million annually.
Decisions on such closures were expected early next year, according to US Postal Service spokesman James Wigdel.
There has been significant public outcry over the proposed closures. Regionally, a Facebook page and a campaign by the Petaluma center’s workers arose in response.
Concerned about the impact on rural customers, on Tuesday the Lake County Board of Supervisors approved a letter to the service’s San Francisco District manager opposing the North Bay center’s closure.
The letter said the action “will negatively impact mail delivery to residents and businesses in Lake County,” resulting in two- to three-day First-Class mail service rather than one- to three-day service.
Thompson said Wednesday that closing the thousands of post offices would slow service, forcing seniors to wait longer for prescription drugs and Social Security checks, while isolating rural communities that would no longer have complete access to postal services
“Consolidating processing facilities would put the jobs of hundreds of hard working men, women and their families on the chopping block, and in this economy losing those jobs in our community is something we can’t afford,” he said.
While it’s delaying the decisions on the closure and consolidations, the US Postal Service is moving forward to change service standards.
Last week the agency announced that due to the need to reduce operating costs by $20 billion by 2015, it was proposing through the rulemaking process to move First-Class Mail to a two- to three-day standard for contiguous U.S. destinations.
The US Postal Service will send to the Postal Regulatory Commission a request for an advisory opinion regarding service standard changes associated with a significant rationalization of its mail processing network, according to the Dec. 5 announcement.
After it sends that request, the US Postal Service said it will publish a notice in the Federal Register soliciting public comment on the specific proposed changes.
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