People often peg one of Tucson’s greatest charms as being a fairly sizable city that has not lost its small town feel. Well, that small town feel is going to get even smaller when the planned U.S. Postal Service closure of the Tucson mail processing center goes through.
No closure date is yet set, but the plan to shutter the Cherrybell Postal Processing and Distribution Center is well underway. Our mail processing will move just up the road a bit to a Phoenix facility. We can wave goodbye to next-day first class delivery, for sure. We can also probably end up driving or even walking a piece of mail across town quicker than the mail service would be able to do it.
And we can kiss the Tucson postmark au revoir and have all our mail instead stamped with Phoenix. This may be the saddest development of all, since those not familiar with Arizona often have trouble spelling Tucson. The postmark at least ensured the spelling was reinforced every time we sent someone a cheery postcard or other piece of mail.
But it shall be no more.
Several City Council Members have already spoken out against the closure, with Ward Five’s Richard Fimbres going as far to start an online petition. The petition has so far only accumulated about 1,260 signatures, certainly keeping that small town feeling alive and well when it comes to support for big issues that can mess up the mail.
If it’s any consolation, Tucson is not alone in this brilliant plan. A total of 223 mail processing closures are planned across the nation in the USPS’s bid to save $20 billion. Another large handful already closed last year, including one in Flagstaff.
Also on last year’s list were processing centers in Stockton, California, with a population of approximately 288,000; Daytona Beach, Florida, with a population of approximately 64,000; and Twin Falls, Idaho, with a population of approximately 43.000. Lafayette, Indiana, with its estimated 66,000 residents was also on the list, as was Worland, Wyoming, and its roughly 5,000 folks.
Round one complete, the USPS got out the bigger guns to close down facilities in bigger locales. This year’s planned closures include facilities in Fort Worth and Corpus Christi, Texas, with populations of about 728,000 and 287,000, respectively; and Staten Island, New York, one of New York City’s five boroughs with a population of about 481,000.
The population estimations only consider residents of that particular city, and not local businesses or residents throughout the surrounding regions that also rely on the mail facilities. The population in Tucson proper is about 549,000, according to City-Data, but it leaps to more than 1 million when you include residents living throughout Pima County and the local businesses.
So let’s cut off their mail service. OK, we’ll be fair. The postal service is not cutting off our mail service. They are simply relocating the processing up the road a bit, just a hop, skip and an annoying 100-plus mile jump through multiple blowing dust zones.
We can understand closing and moving a mail processing facility that serves a population of about 5,000. We can even say OK to closing facilities that serve fewer than 100,000 if we want to cut the USPS some slack even though it seems to raise postage rates at random yet regular intervals.
But closing the Tucson-area facility leaves more than 1 million residents and hundreds of thousands of business in the lurch, likely faced with higher postage rates for certain services and slower delivery all around. It also kicks nearly 300 local folks out of work, with the nationwide closures killing off a total of 35,000 jobs.
And just think what will happen with things like vote-by-mail, which shall release a deluge that has the potential power to clog up the whole system. Our weekly supermarket junk mail coupons may not arrive until well after the sales are finished or, are the very least, after others have already scooped up the $4.88 rising-crust DiGiorno pizzas.
Not only will our mail be delayed, but we are likely to starve to death if this planned closure goes through. So what can we do about it?
Signing the petition may be cool, although moving to Phoenix or a place closer to a processing facility is definitely another option. Just don’t pick Fort Worth, Corpus Christi or Staten Island. And we’re not even sure at this rate if mail will ever even get to Worland, Wyoming, so you may want to cross it off your list.
This article appears in Mar 1-7, 2012.
I do not speak for anyone except myself, as an individual American Citizen, on the current onslaught of legislative proposals that attempt to correct (or destroy) the United States Postal Service. There are 6 things that can be done from within the USPS that can save a projected $12.4 Billion Dollars the very first year WITHOUT need for politicians running about causing trouble by cutting service, service days, or denying services to rural or unprofitable areas. Thereafter projected savings are $11.2 Billion Dollars per year as compared to a 6 year annualized SPLY. To put it clearly, it weeds out the lazy and any drug or alcohol addicted from the USPS and the streets of our community. What are your thoughts on the following?
1. Yearly Physical Fitness Tests. All Postal Employees are expected to be able to carry 35 pounds in a satchel, and lift 70 pounds periodically. All Postal Employees, from the Postmaster General of the United States, to his staff, to all Postmasters, Supervisors, Clerks, Carriers, Support and Maintenance persons can walk three miles around any local high school track in the nation, carrying a satchel with 35 pounds in it, and lift a 70 pound parcel of maximum shipping dimensions from the ground to a table every half mile. This will be done on the employee’s own time at their own cost. It is to be supervised by medical personnel and a certified authority. Failure to do so would be failure to meet the qualifications for employment. This can be done during any of the yearly “Walk for Life” events in any part of the United States and Territories at no cost to the employee, while raising funds for a cure to Cancer. This would also support the Anti-Obesity programs we have in America. Failure during the test would allow one retest the following year before removal. The employee would have a year to get into shape. Such an enforcement of existing regulations would drive those willingly unfit for duty, to retire, before even taking the first step on the track. Better health for employees would improve attendance, productivity, customer service, morale and public relations.
2. Restructure to Two Areas and One District per state. No more than 100 Employees per Area and 100 Employees per District. No more than 100 Employees at HQ. Too much money is being siphoned away by highly paid district and area employees that do little during their 8 hour day, that can immediately be recaptured. When this restructuring is announced, 30 days after the “Yearly Physical Fitness Tests” are announced, a great exodus of retirements will take place. Those who can retire, will. Those who can’t do the job, will get in shape or leave.
3. Eliminate all USPS HQ R&D/IT Facilities. Each District must have their own R&D/IT/ISSC/IBSSC as part of their district staff. I realize how many support and development empires we have in the USPS. In national projects, a cooperative with existing personnel will produce the desired results.
4. Reinstate the USPSIS as the sole law enforcement agency. Legally, the USPS does not qualify for an OIG. OIG agents across the nation, waiting for work from their local Districts can be reassigned to other federal investigative agencies. USPS Law departments can be farmed out to contractual agencies. USPSIS can exist as it has before the introduction of OIG into the Postal Culture. OIG and Legal department employees have marketable skills that can be used elsewhere.
5. Postmasters, Managers, PCES, and all EAS personnel must carry mail for two weeks out of every 6 months. The true perspective and feel of our core business is lost. The benefits and ideas that come from the front line are lost as well. Knowledgeable links are necessary between the first mile, last mile, and administration of such. Local Offices will choose a route of the Letter Carrier’s choice, for each executive, near the executive’s home address. The duties will be performed during vacant periods, totaling two weeks, on the chosen route. This is not meant as a morale booster, though that will be one benefit. The ideas come from the field offices will be priceless.
6. Yearly Random Drug Tests. It may be surprising to employees to know that some drugs stay in the system for a very long time. It will be surprising to employers, how many of their employees do illegal drugs. All employees, to include PCES and EAS personnel will be required to submit to random drug testing each and every year to maintain employment. Advances in modern medicine have driven the prices of such drug testing kits very low. Considering that Postal Employees drive our roads where children are present, as a part of their daily duties, for many of them, it should be the concern of all employees that the public remain safe. The random drug testing will be administered according to a computer program that will determine, each morning, if and when an employee is required to submit to testing. This, coupled with the “Yearly Physical Fitness Tests” will help to improve safety and performance. Those who fail the drug test will be retested as per current regulations and removed from service if confirmed illegal drug use is determined.
Thank you for your initiative and action in advocating this solution and sharing it with others.
Wow, I dont know about all that, but I’m gonna open a next day mail bidness – Buck a Letter.
After all – if you really really really CANT wait 3-5 days because that bills gotta get there so they dont shut off your electric , gas, water; or worse -tow your car: Then someone should be able (and by that I mean profit) to help!!!
My dad is a retired mail carrier and well he worked harder then than they do now and he made less money.
Blah, blah, blah. The public wanted Privatization, now you get it. Call UPS to deliver your mail. hahaha
This will not only affect Tucson but all of Southern Arizona. Oro Valley, Marana, Green Valley, Sahuarita, the rest of unincorporated Pima County, Cochise County, Santa Cruz. More than 1.5 million people and the thousands of businesses in Southern Arizona. Mr. Fimbres petition goes to the Postal Board of Governors and the Postmaster as well.
Rather than gripe, sorry Ryn, people should sign the petition, speak out to the Members of Congress and support all efforts to make sure it doesn’t close.
Too many Chiefs not enough indians, the Postal Service should make cuts beginning with management, and yes the Postmaster General. They are the ones that get yearly bonuses and paid as I have seen to fool around with the clerks, letter carriers, etc then go home to their wives. Also I have worked along side clerks, letter carriers that pride themselves on the ability to do minimal work, if that, so the other clerks, letter carriers have to pick up their work load, this is the reason why they are losing money, but as the saying goes, “Can’t see the forest because of the trees.” Glad I retired, because I got tired of being the MULE.
The UNION is the problem and will continue to be. Ridiculous retirement plans and no ability to fire for cause are only 2 of the reasons to gut the union.
FTR, are you really that clueless. The financial problem the USPS is having is due to a Republican passed bill that is requiring them to pay in full all pension and health plans 75 Years in advance. This is costing them an additional 3-4 billion $ a year. Obviously just a attempt to shut them down for a privatised company to be named later. BTW, USPS does not recieve 1 penny in tax dollars.
To K Groves: Talk about clueless. You top the list!! Try doing a Goolgle lookup of “postal bail out” and see how much taxpayer money has been going to the Postal service to keep them going the past several years. The Republicans cannot pass a bill alone, they only control one of the three branches of Government and there are three, and only since 2010 have they controlled the House. Its about time the Postal employees contribute some of their own money toward their pensions!
KCS
What about people that have PO boxes at the Cherrybell post office, will those still be available for us?
To KCS,
“The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA) (HR 6407), enacted on December 20, 2006, obligates the USPS to prefund 75-years’ worth of future health care benefit payments to retirees within a ten-year time span — a requirement to which no other government organization is subject.
The USPS has not directly received taxpayer-dollars since the early 1980s with the minor exception of subsidies for costs associated with the disabled and overseas voters. Revenue in the 2000s has been dropping sharply due to declining mail volume,[5] prompting the postal service to look to other sources of revenue while cutting costs to reduce its budget deficit.[6] “
In 2006 the Republicans controlled all 3 branches of Govt..The Presidency, The Congress (both houses) and the Supreme Court. In this time they passed 100’s of laws every year without hinderance.
Could you post your info?
The PO is the economic infrastructure of this country. Privatization is the dumbest idea ever. Buy something online? Get ready to pay 3x shipping than you do now. FEDEX and UPS are licking their chops to jam you even more than they already do. Live outside the metro area? Oh sorry, our private company doesn’t deliver that far, you know it’s not cost effective for us. All the PO haters and people that say, ” I do all my bill paying online,” remember the internet is accessed through private companies who would like nothing more than being your only option for communications and information. This means get ready for a large increase in you internet/cable/telephone bills. The PO is mandated by the US Constitution to provide equal service at the exact same price for all individuals. It is not a for profit business like Congress would like everyone to believe.
thanks, all, for the fabulous and interesting input.
i do have two links to the petition (in addition to my gripes – haha!) and i also see signatures are up since i last looked in – yaay!
agree with ya, tucson business owner who advertises in the weekly – signing the petition is dandy idea.
thanks again for interesting reading on the comments end.
the postal service has finely said to the hell with congress, to the hell with the senate, to the hell with us. the postal service has been targeted for privatization sincie the beginng of on longer being part of govt. run.(the 70’s). it started with small post offices (one empolyee) so small you wouldn’t notice, in towns you ever heard of. we are now at the point not only will notice but feel it to. why do you think fedex bought kinko’s and ups stores opening ,open your eyes.
BY the way the grocery ads you speak of…….. Are dropped by the mailer at the individual delivering offices. So your precious grocery ads will be delivered timely as usual.
Anyone hear of the internet? How many people write letters anymore? Go to a private postal store and use Fed Ex and UPS and get your mail sent with more speed and security…..