Congressman Don Manzullo (R-Egan) tonight asked U.S. Postal Service officials to keep open its postal consolidation study and work with him to find alternatives to closing the Rockford sorting center, which would eliminate 200 local jobs and delay mail service to residents and business owners in eight northern Illinois counties.

Manzullo, who addressed USPS officials at tonight’s public comment session on its proposed move of Rockford sorting operations to Madison, Wisconsin, said the Rockford sorting center continues to be one of the most efficient in the nation and should not be closed. He again asked the USPS for information it has been withholding that would help local officials present alternatives to closing Rockford.

“We all know the U.S. Postal Service is facing very troubling times, but it makes no sense to close the most efficient sorting center in the nation, send the jobs from Rockford to Wisconsin, and delay mail delivery to residents and business owners in eight northern Illinois counties,” Manzullo said. “I am asking the USPS to keep the Rockford study open, and continue to work with us to get the data we need to find alternatives to putting 200 more people out of work and delaying mail service in northern Illinois.”

At the meeting, Manzullo presented USPS officials with resolutions of support approved on very short notice by 17 communities in northern Illinois. The closure of the Rockford sorting center would delay mail delivery to the eight counties served by zip codes beginning with 610 and 611. Those counties include Boone, Winnebago, Stephenson, JoDaviess, Carroll, Whiteside, Lee, and Ogle.

In a letter to Postmaster General Pat Donahoe earlier this year, Manzullo explained how he worked with Rockford postal officials during the last consolidation study in 2006 to present alternative information that convinced the Postal Service to abandon its plan to move Rockford mail processing operations to the Chicago suburbs. Local officials again need to see the USPS data comparing operations in Rockford with Madison so they can correct it if necessary.

Manzullo has been working with U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Mark Kirk (R-IL) to seek alternatives to closing the Rockford sorting center. Manzullo, Durbin and Kirk met with Postmaster General Pat Donahoe on Nov. 1 to share their concerns with the potential move of operations to Wisconsin and the damage it would cause to northern Illinois.