The U.S. Postal Service announced Thursday that it plans to shift the operations of its Plattsburgh mail processing facility to Albany, a move that's expected to cause delays in the delivery of stamped, first-class mail.
The decision comes five months after the Postal Service began studying the potential consolidation of 264 of its processing facilities, including the Plattsburgh Customer Service Mail Processing Center that serves all of northeastern New York, including the Tri-Lakes area.
Of the 264 facilities that were studied across the country, the Postal Service said Thursday that six are on hold for further study, 35 will remain open, and 223, including Plattsburgh, have been found feasible for consolidation, all or in part.
Postal Service officials blamed the decision to consolidate processing centers on the agency's bleak financial picture. The volume of first-class mail has dropped 25 percent since 2006, and the agency lost $3.3 billion last quarter.
"The decision to consolidate mail processing facilities recognizes the urgent need to reduce the size of the national mail processing network to eliminate costly underutilized infrastructure," Postal Service Chief Operating Officer Megan Brennan said in a press release. "Consolidating operations is necessary if the Postal Service is to remain viable to provide mail service to the nation."
Ruth Marshall, secretary and treasurer for the Plattsburgh chapter of the American Postal Workers Union and a processing clerk at the Plattsburgh facility, said the shift to Albany will affect everyone who has a ZIP code that starts with 129, giving them slower, less reliable service.
"The service to the North Country is drastically going to change," Marshall said. "If you mail a letter in Saranac Lake today and want it to go to Plattsburgh, the next morning they'll have it. By sending it through Albany, it's going to be at least two days before that letter gets there, if not longer."
Postal Service spokeswoman Maureen Marion said the change in service standards from one day to two days doesn't apply to package delivery and premium services like Express Mail. She said the agency is responding to a shift in the use of traditional mail as more people use email to communicate and the Internet to pay bills.
Marshall argues that things are somewhat different in the North Country.
"Some people in really rural areas don't have Internet service, and they're not paying their bills electronically," she said. "They rely on the Postal Service to get information out to people in their towns.
"The Postal Service has financial concerns, and we agree there are things that need to be changed and updated. But if we get rid of our network right now, in terms of people getting their mail in a timely manner, we're going to lose more customers, and that's just going to make things worse."
It's unclear exactly how many employees at the Plattsburgh processing facility could lose their jobs from this closure. The facility employs about 55 people. Depending on their contractual situation, Marion said some workers may choose to retire while others could be given the opportunity to transfer to the Albany processing center or other jobs within the agency.
"We'll begin the process now of working with our employees to facilitate what happens next for them in their Postal Service careers," she said.
Marshall said staff at the Plattsburgh facility have been told it will simply be a transportation hub for mail going to and coming from Albany. She said staff haven't been told yet how many jobs will be lost.
While the timetable for the consolidation hasn't been set, it can't take place until the necessary Postal Service rulemaking is completed, and it can't happen until after a moratorium on closing or consolidating postal facilities expires on May 15. The Postal Service agreed in December to set that deadline to give Congress the opportunity to enact an alternative plan.
Thursday's announcement was "provided in advance so that appropriate planning and notification can be made in accordance with existing employee agreements," the agency said in a press release.
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Public's take
Local residents say they don't like the prospect of delays in local mail service, but they understood the situation the agency is facing. The Enterprise approached several customers of the Saranac Lake post office Thursday to get their opinions on the shift in mail processing from Plattsburgh to Albany.
"The post office has to do something," said Tim Holmes of Saranac Lake. "It means we're going to lose some good jobs, but it sounds like they gotta save money somewhere. Hopefully they can get it together."
If it's going to take a couple days longer for a letter or bill to reach its destination, people just need to plan ahead a little bit, Holmes said.
Jason Wamsganz said he didn't think the change would have much of an impact on him, but he said it seems like a waste of resources.
"It's crazy in the sense that they're trying to save money in Plattsburgh by doing this," he said, "yet with the price of gas, we're going to spend more money sending our mail to Albany to turn it around and send it back up here. I'm sure it's going save money, but is it going to save as much as they think it's going to save?"
"It's disheartening," said Melinda Little. "I worry about the long-term impact of all of this because this is such a great place to see everybody in the community. I can see things going away like Saturday delivery, but I hope the Postal Service can find a way out of this."