USPS plans layoffs, slower deliveries

The cash-strapped, pension-plagued U.S. Postal Service is making a lot of news and none of it is good.

After putting hundreds of rural post offices on notice last summer that they could be shuttered in 2012, the agency said Monday that 252 mail processing centers around the country are "slated for closure," including those at Springfield and Cape Girardeau, Mo., as well as the one at Topeka, Kan.

Nearly 30,000 workers will be laid off.

On a separate subject to congressional review, decisions are expected in January on whether closings will be recommended for rural post offices including those at Roscoe, Moundville, Deerfield and Harwood.

A total of 133 such offices are being considered for closure in the Postal Service's Mid-America Region because the agency's congressionally mandated multi-billion-dollar pension pre-payments, combined with Americans' increased use of emails and other alternative modes of communication, have caused the private corporation to lose more than 42 billion annual pieces of mail since 2006.

Nevada Postmaster Frank Meister declined comment Tuesday.

In Washington, USPS Vice President David Williams told the Associated Press that the closures of regional processing centers next spring will slow first-class mail delivery in the continental U.S. from the current one to three days to between two and five days.

The agency had already announced a one-cent increase in first class mail to 45 cents beginning Jan. 22. "Are we writing off first class mail?" asked Williams. "No, but customers are making their choices and what we're doing is responding to the current market conditions and placing the Postal Service on a path allowing us to respond to future changes. We have to do what's in our control to put the Postal Service on solid financial ground."

Williams said newspapers, magazines and other bulk mailers might be able to get next-day delivery if they can meet tighter deadlines and drop off shipments at the remaining processing centers.

At present, 42 percent of first-class mail is delivered the next day with 27 percent arriving in two days, 31 percent in three days and fewer than 1 percent in four to five days.

After the downsizing, 51 percent will be delivered in two days and most of the rest in three days, USPS spokesmen said.

In Kansas, centers are on the chopping block at Colby, Dodge City, Hays, Hutchinson, Liberal, Salina and Topeka, whose closure would apparently put greater pressure on the one at Kansas City.

Those at Springfield and Cape Girardeau are the only Missouri processing centers being closed, according to the USPS list.

The agency said the layoffs will generally range from 50 at the smaller centers to 2,000 at the major ones in Cincinnati, Boston, Orlando and New Orleans.