While the postmaster general announced Wednesday that the U.S. Postal Service will soon be stopping mail deliveries on Saturdays, the window hours at many rural post offices are also going to be reduced.
The financially struggling Postal Service will stop mail delivery on Saturdays this summer but package delivery will continue six days a week, Postmaster General and CEO Patrick R. Donahoe said Wednesday.
"The operational plan for the new delivery schedule anticipates a combination of employee reassignment and attrition and is expected to achieve cost savings of approximately $2 billion annually when fully implemented," Donohoe said on the Postal Service's website at usps.com.
Cheryl L. Messina, tax collector for the Borough of Port Carbon, said Wednesday that while she's not happy to hear the Postal Service is cutting back on its services, this latest move won't affect her business.
"I could see there being a problem if they stopped mail service on a weekday. But Saturday doesn't bother me too much. You can make a deposit on a Saturday if your bank's open but it doesn't get credited to the account until Monday. So it won't make too much of a difference to me," Messina said Wednesday.
However, people paying bills of any sort should mail them out earlier, since the mail won't be moving on Saturday, Messina said.
Postmasters at local offices, including Frackville and Pottsville, had no comment on the changes and referred all calls to Ray V. Daiutolo Sr., a USPS regional spokesman based in Bellmawr, N.J.
Since 2006, the Postal Service has reduced its annual cost base by about $15 billion, reduced the size of its career workforce by 193,000 or 28 percent, and has consolidated more than 200 mail processing locations, according to the site.
In May 2012, for example, the Postal Service ceased distributing mail from the Gus Yatron Postal Facility at 2100 N. 13th St, Reading.
That month, the Postal Service also announced it would be reducing hours at nearly 13,000 rural post offices across the nation to save more than a half-billion dollars. That's part of the Postal Service's "Post Plan" that will reduce the hours at numerous post offices in Schuylkill County over the next year and a half.
While its carriers were known for braving all sorts of weather, it appears the U.S. Postal Service is struggling to deal with the winds of change.
The "Post Plan" and other upcoming changes will be discussed by the Board of Governors of the U.S. Postal Service on Friday morning at an open session at Postal Service headquarters in Washington, D.C. The public is welcome to observe the meeting beginning at 8:30 a.m. in the Ben Franklin Room on the 11th floor, according to usps.com.
"The Postal Service is advancing an important new approach to delivery that reflects the strong growth of our package business and responds to the financial realities resulting from America's changing mailing habits. We developed this approach by working with our customers to understand their delivery needs and by identifying creative ways to generate significant cost savings," Donahoe said Wednesday.
The "Post Plan" would keep the existing post offices in place but with modified retail window hours to match customer use. Access to the retail lobby and to P.O. boxes would remain unchanged and the town's ZIP code and community identity would be retained, according to the site.
The offices in Schuylkill County that would be reduced from eight hours to six hours are: Andreas, Barnesville, Cressona and Mar Lin.
Offices being reduced from eight hours to four are: Aristes, Branchdale, Coaldale, Cumbola, Delano, Girardville, Gordon, Kelayres, Klingerstown, Lavelle, Llewellyn, MaryD, Middleport, Muir, New Philadelphia, Nuremberg, Oneida, Pitman, Port Carbon, Port Clinton, Quakake, Sacramento, Sheppton, Spring Glen, Summit Station, Tremont, Tuscarora and Zion Grove.
Offices being reduced from eight hours to two are: Locustdale and Lost Creek.
"The process to implement the 'Post Plan' is being conducted in a multiphased approach over two years, to be completed in September 2014," Daiutolo said Wednesday.