Postal Plant Closure Plans: What Do You Think?

According to a news briefing and materials issued Thursday by U.S. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe, both mail processing sites in Petaluma — the main plant on North McDowell Boulevard and an annex on Southpoint Boulevard — will cease sorting operations by 2014. The North McDowell site will remain open for both public and business mail services.

The moves could affect Novato customers because letters and packages went through the Petaluma main sorting plant — even items going from one side of Novato to the other. After the closures, all that material will go through Oakland, possibly extending delivery time.

It's part of what is called the Network Consolidation Plan, a long-range effort to manage the inevitable decline in revenue from the advent of electronic communication. First-class mail, already in steep decline, is expected to drop another 50 percent in the period from 2010 to 2020.

Some 140 post offices will be "consolidated" under the plan by February 2013, in just less than a year. About 28,000 jobs nationally are expected to be lost under the plan. Novato, which has just one post office, is not expected to be affected by the consolidation plan.

Still, the post office insists,  "We expect our transition will be virtually unnoticeable to the 150 million residents and businesses we deliver to every day." (See the attached Network Fact Sheet for details.)

The Postal Service has been for years, especially since a 2006 law passed by Congress and signed by Pres. George W Bush forces them to prepay pension obligations, making them the only federal agency to do so. Many critics believe this is the primary reason for the current red ink the USPS is facing. " Mandatory prepayment of $5.5 billion annually into the pension fund at the start the year is a deep hole to climb out of," a postal worker is quoted as saying in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.

Be that as it may, the end is the same: Mail that is now handled at the Petaluma processing facilities will be rerouted to Oakland by this summer, causing the postal service to spend more money on trucking and fuel. A local first-class letter is usually delivered overnight now, as the Press Democrat points out, but that kind of prompt service could fade away.

It's not just about mail service, though: There are jobs at stake. The Post Office has "reduced its workforce by 244,000 since 2000 without layoffs,"  though its union contracts forbid layoffs.  — in Petaluma, that means about 350 affected workers  — but if they are unable to take them they are technically not "laid off" but refuse work.  Many are taking early retirement instead.

How will this affect you, your reliance on the post office? We'd like to hear your thoughts in the comments below.