The U.S. Postal Service announced last week that Bemidji’s mail processing center is among five in the state that will close, which will impact International Falls’ first-class mail.
According to Postal Service spokesman Pete Nowacki, customers can expect delivery delays if they’re sending first-class mail to a local address.
“The only real difference International Falls people will see is the loss of the overnight commitment of first-class mail,” Nowacki said of the Bemidji center’s closing.
Currently, mail sent from an International Falls-area address is sorted in Bemidji. In December, Nowacki told The Journal that there was a chance mail sorting operations could move from the Bemidji facility to one in St. Cloud, which wouldn’t impact overnight first-class mail. However, last week, the Postal Service said centers in the Twin Cities would take over mail sorting duties for Bemidji, Duluth, Mankato, Rochester and St. Cloud.
When making the decision to close the five centers, Nowacki says, “we looked at what kind of savings we could realize and how we could (close centers) without negatively impacting service too much.”
He added that when the Postal Service considered closing the Bemidji processing center, it was decided it was “operationally workable and fiscally the responsible thing to do.”
The spokesman said a total of six jobs will be impacted by the closing of the Bemidji center, which has not been given a timeline as to when it will close.
“For the most part, International Falls mail will not see a lot of changes,” Nowacki said. “A hypothetical letter sent from one International Falls address to another will now be delivered in two days instead of one.”
Nationwide, Nowacki noted the Postal Service is considering cuts to more than 260 mail processing centers as part of a billion-dollar cost-cutting effort.
“For the Bemidji consolidation, we estimate savings at about $950,000 per year,” Nowacki explained. “Nationwide, these closures will result in the neighborhood of $2.1 billion in annual savings.”
A Postal Service statement said consolidations typically would lengthen the distance mail travels from post office to processing center, prompting the agency to lower delivery standards for first-class mail that, for the first time in 40 years, will eliminate the chance for stamped letters to arrive the next day.
Last week, the Postal Service warned it will lose as much as $18.2 billion a year by 2015 unless Congress grants it new leeway to eliminate Saturday delivery and raise the price of a postage stamp by as much as 5 cents.
“There are concerns,” Nowacki said. “We are trying our best to address those concerns.”
Area offices update
Nowacki also told The Journal Monday he did not have an update on the future of the Birchdale and Mizpah Post Offices.
“I do not have an update to provide at this time,” he said.
Both offices were placed under review by the Postal Service to consider closure in an effort to save the agency money. In December, Nowacki said a public comment period on the Birchdale Post Office ended Dec. 12 and a final determination on the facility from postal headquarters is expected to be made after Jan. 1.
“If the office closes, customers will be served by carriers out of Baudette, with projected savings of $326,431 over a 10-year period,” Nowacki told The Journal in December.
The public comment period for the Mizpah Post Office ended Dec. 15 and was also submitted to headquarters for final determination, Nowacki added. If closed, carrier service would generate from the Northome Post Office with projected 10-year savings of $566,943.
Efforts in the Senate
In an effort to maintain dependable mail service for all Minnesotans, U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar, Al Franken, and 25 other senators urged Senate leadership to ensure that postal service reform legislation does everything possible to protect fast, reliable delivery and preserve rural customers’ access to post offices.
In a letter to the Senate leadership, the senators wrote, “Everyone understands that the Postal Service is in the midst of a serious financial crisis that must be addressed. But, we believe that this financial crisis can be solved in a way that does not substantially slow down the delivery of mail and harm rural America.”
“Over the long-term, we believe that the (United States) Postal Service must develop a new business model for it to succeed in the 21st Century, just like virtually every other postal service in the industrialized world has already done.”
Klobuchar and Franken sent a letter last week to the leaders of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, and International Security. It was also signed by 25 of their Senate colleagues.
Earlier this month, Klobuchar, Franken, and nine other senators urged the postmaster general to recognize the needs of rural customers by reconsidering a proposal that would make rural mail delivery slower and less convenient to cut costs.
In December, the senators successfully pushed the postmaster general to institute a moratorium on the closing of post offices and processing facilities, protecting service for rural customers until Congress can move forward with legislation to address the financial struggles of the U.S. Postal Service.
