EASTON Sens. Barbara A. Mikulski and Ben Cardin, both D-Md., demanded Thursday a halt to a new study on moving Easton’s mail processing facility to Wilmington, Del.
U.S. Postal Service officials twice delayed a decision on moving the facility’s operations to Baltimore, then Thursday announced the new study. Employees at the facility heard the news at a meeting there Wednesday night.
The new study, like the first, involves a review of operations in Easton and could take up to five months to complete.
“Due to Easton’s proximity to Wilmington, the postal service recognized the need to perform due diligence and examine a possible consolidation scenario of Easton into Wilmington,” Freda Sauter, USPS spokesman said. “The postal service is analyzing the data and public comments to determine the best course of action moving forward.”
The senators, however, oppose consolidation, which they said could burden the lives and livelihood of of 500,000 residents on the Shore.
“We are strongly opposed to any consideration of transferring mail processing and distribution from the Easton area mail processing center to Delaware,” the senators wrote to Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe. “There is absolutely no statistical or empirical data to justify consideration of this idea. The Easton area mail processing center is the only mail processing center on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and its ongoing operation is critically important to the residents, small businesses and a significant rural and elderly population that relies on the mail service.”
The senators also expressed frustration for what they described as total disregard for a transparent and public process. They also said this is a last-minute decision based on undue political influence.
The senators asked for a response by March 1.
State Sen. Richard Colburn, R-37-Mid-Shore, called the possible closure devastating.
“Any possible relocation of Easton’s mail processing operation, whether to Baltimore or 85 miles away to Wilmington, Del., would be another devastating economic blow to Maryland’s Eastern Shore,” Colburn said. “The U.S. congress needs to be responsible, and take the appropriate action, and eliminate Saturday operations.”
Thursday’s announcement comes in the middle of a five-month moratorium on closures that expires in May. During the closure, Congress is supposed to work on a solution to the postal service’s financial woes that doesn’t harm rural America.
Mikulski and Cardin recently joined 25 other senators in asking the committee that oversees the postal service to strengthen a bill the service proposed. That bill would modernize the service, and allow it to make about $10 billion in cost-cutting moves that require Congressional approval.
Sauter does not yet have cost-saving estimates on this latest proposal, she said. As for the potential effect on employees at the facility, Sauter said the postal service would follow the requirements of collective bargaining agreements and the law.
She also said no public meetings are scheduled at this time. When the postal service previously studied moving operations, the agency held one public hearing a decision the senators sharply criticized.
“We’re going to work with the postal service to ensure that the community has the opportunity to engage in a thorough public hearing process on this or any other proposal regarding the Easton facility,” U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md.-1st, said Thursday.
Sauter said Easton’s facility generates no revenue and mail volume declined by 7.4 percent from last year.
A recent Sage Policy Group study showed closing the Easton facility would shrink the Shore’s economy by $19 million. It also would result in the loss of 126 jobs and an $8.6 million loss in labor income.
Letter to PMG:
February 23, 2012
Dear Postmaster General Donahoe,
We write to express our significant concern and extreme dismay about an announcement made to the Easton postal employees that the U.S. Postal Service is considering instituting a new study to transfer mail processing and distribution services from the Easton area mail processing center to the Hares Corner mail processing center in Wilmington, Delaware.
We are extremely frustrated with the total disregard for a transparent and public process, the lack of any justification or cost savings, and the concerns we have expressed on behalf of our constituents about delays in mail service. Now, due to what we feel is undue political influence, a last minute decision has been made to request another study that would not only close a facility that must remain open, but also potentially recommend moving those functions and jobs to Delaware.
While we are mindful of the fiscal challenges facing the Postal Service, as members of Congress, we have every right to know the basis for important decisions like this one, which have the potential to significantly burden the lives and livelihood of the half a million residents on the Eastern Shore. These residents include farmers, small businesses and a significant rural and elderly population that relies heavily on mail delivery for life saving medications, daily newspapers, important business documents and even shipments of live animals.
We are strongly opposed to any consideration of transferring mail processing and distribution from the Easton area mail processing center to Delaware. There is absolutely no statistical or empirical data to justify consideration of this idea. The Easton area mail processing center is the only mail processing center on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and its ongoing operation is critically important to the residents, small businesses, and a significant rural and elderly population that relies on the mail service. Relaxing delivery standards by moving mail processing from Easton to Delaware is simply not a practical or sustainable option. We ask you to reconsider studying this option.
We expect your direct reply to our concerns no later than March 1, 2012.
Sincerely,
U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski
U.S. Senator Ben Cardin
The Maryland Senators also wrote a letter to the PMG strongly opposing the closure of the Cumberland area mail processing and distribution center and moving operations out of state to Johnstown, PA.
WASHINGTON – U. S. Senators Ben Cardin and Barbara A. Mikulski (both D-MD) today wrote the Postmaster General strongly opposing the closure of the Cumberland area mail processing and distribution center and moving operations out of state to Johnstown, PA.
In their letter to the Postmaster General, the Senators stressed that moving the mail processing center 70 miles away to Johnstown would affect mail service and increase transportation costs. The Senators also stated that they would oppose any relaxation of delivery standards that would result from moving the processing center to Pennsylvania.
The text of the letter is below:
February 23, 2012
Dear Postmaster General Donahoe,
We write to express our significant concern and strong opposition to today’s announcement that the Cumberland area mail processing and distribution center is scheduled for closure with the transfer of mail processing to the Johnstown, Pennsylvania center.
The Cumberland area mail processing and distribution center is the only remaining mail processing center in Western Maryland after the closure of the Frederick area mail processing center, and its ongoing operation is critically important to area residents, small businesses, and a significant rural and elderly population that rely on the mail service. These residents and small businesses rely heavily on the mail delivery for life saving medications, daily newspapers, and important business documents. Rural residents, particularly seniors, will suffer undue hardship.
The Johnstown mail processing center is approximately 70 miles from Cumberland and the transfer will result in diminished mail service and increased transportation costs, based on your own study. This is simply unacceptable. Relaxing delivery standards by moving processing from Cumberland to Johnstown is simply not practical or sustainable.
While we are mindful of the fiscal challenges facing the Postal Service, this public service and current mail delivery standards for the residents and businesses in Western Maryland must take top priority and be maintained. We ask you to reconsider this decision.
We request your direct reply to our concerns by March 1, 2012.
Sincerely,
U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski
U.S. Senator Ben Cardin
OH!NO! EXPEDITED MAIL WOULD BE DELIVERED AS PER THE PRICE CUSTOMER PAID FEOR A DEDICATED DELIVERY TIME FRAME. USPS MUST MUST INCREASE EXPEDITED MAIL SUCH AS PRIORITY AND EXPRESS. USPS ORIGINATED EXPRESS MAIL BUT NOW HAS LESS THAN 10%. FED X IT IS COMMON REFERENCE USED FOR NEXT DAY DELIVERY.USPS must eliminate cost factors which can never be overcome and direct efforts to gain market share which generates revenue. 6 day street delivery is an out dated wasted cost with high cost and low revenue generation for bulk business advertising junk mail.
Post office goes down, So does eBay. Another multi-billion business that is directly affected by P.O. business. Think anything will be there to hold down the raising rates on only 2 remainin “for profit” businesses(UPS, Fedex)?
Eliminating Saturday service deprives us of one of the few advantages over private run companies. (And I don’t even work Saturdays already).What mailer in there right mind would mail something priority (which is normally 2-3 days, in the current system, could be slower if P.O. changes are put into place) on Wednesday only to arrive at the soonest on Monday. This is one of the post offices highest profit items. They seem to only want to shoot themselves in the foot. Republicans only want to put P.O. in death spiral and Democrats don’t do anything t fix it. They are both complicate in different ways.
Politicans playing politics. USPS sinking financially. Action must be aken to save some form of USPS as it exist in this century to deliver sales advertising which is a loosing monatary proposition. USPS should be restructured to meet service demands and not politicans, management pressure groups, management and craft unions dictating wasted cost not in demand or used by the American public. If politics is to determine services provided,maintaining unnecessary small congested area officies then tax payors should foot the bill as bottomline the USPS has no chance to be cost effective to reach a breakeven bottom line.
They are not looking for simple solutions or any solutions at all, there goal is to privatize, and they won’t let anything deter them from that. They’ve been degrading service for at least 6 years so they can get the public on board (when your waiting in line for an hour to mail something you can’t help but think that someone else can do it better) No business in their right mind under staffs the window clerks on the busiest days of the year such as April 15th unless they want to create disgruntled customers. The OIG should subpoena all communications between PMG Donoughe , republican congressman, Fed Ex and UPS to find their real agenda. The APWU offered to process all contracted mail for a penny less per piece, why didn’t the PMG take them up on that offer? because it would ruin the privatization plans put in place by PMG Potter
the simple solution would be for congress to pass a simple bill to end the prefunding of retirements.give the p.o. 2 to 3 years to see where they are without major cuts in service. since the p.o. is losing out on fcm because of the internet they should be aggressively looking into pushing parcel post/priority/media mail as sources of future revenue since many more people are buying on line and these products need delivery.
Correction: that is 11 BILLION (not million) the USPS gets back if S1789 is passed.
email your Senators and tell them to vote YES on S1789.
i don’t understand. they say nothing about southern maryland absorbing waldorf and suburban annex but complain about easton going to delaware. ever think about maybe those employees want to go to de. think about it.
hey ken, because they were stupid enough to believe the postal service lies about closing the frederick p&df not affecting service and saving money. too bad they didnt look at the amp study …the 4 million dollar savings was the 58 disappearing employees transfered to other facilities. they are still getting paid by the postal service just like before but not at frederick….see there 4 million saved…
This Sucks, has it right. Close ISSA’s ana ROSS”s districts FIRST !!
Where were these maryland senators when they closed the frederick maryland
plant? No where to be found after we sought their help in keeping our
plant open. That’s right, easton is in their district, imagine that politicians
being politicians! They do nothing until in effects their jobs and area, to hell with
everyone else. It’s all one be pile of crap!
Let’s start by clossing ALL Postal Facilities in ISSA’s and ROSS’ districts FIRST! Just giving them what they want!
Congressman Colburn may have stumbled onto the USPS strategy: If Congress blesses elimination of Saturday service, maybe they’ll compromise on the plant closings.
Please have a VERA so I can get out.
The PMG has acheived his goal of getting the Senate’s attention. They are sitting on our money and won’t vote on any USPS bills for fear of offending someone during an election year. Well, how ’bout closing some major facilities in some Senator’s backyard? CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?
Get off your chickensh*t behinds Senator’s and vote YES on S1789 (that is the one that refunds $11 mil back to the USPS)
And with that money, let the early outs commence.