December 5, 2011 in News, City

Spokane’s mail processing center spared from closure list

Spokane’s mail processing center will be spared, and also could begin sorting mail from the Tri-Cities, Wenatchee and western Montana under a budget-cutting consolidation plan, according to the U.S. Postal Service.

Processing centers in Pasco, Wash., Wenatchee, Wash., Missoula, Mont., and Kalispell, Mont. are among 250 identified for closure by Postal Service officials. Mail currently sorted in those centers likely would be processed in Spokane, where the postal service has a large facility near the airport on the West Plains.

It’s unclear how many jobs would be added at the Spokane center.

The final decision will be subject to hearings, officials said.

16 comments on this story so far. Add yours!

Jethro_toll on December 05 at 4:26 p.m.
It could be closed and no on would notice. Drive out there to deposit mail. there is a plethora of signs pointing to the office which is never manned and no parking spots. After ten minutes of trying to get ahold of someone they will inform you that the mail drop off is ANOTHER block south. I guess a sign at the front corner is just too expensive.
Dazzeetrader11 on December 05 at 4:47 p.m.
lolol,,You’re very correct on this one Jethro! Unions cut a nice deal on this one. Hidden as it gets…and money for nothin’ too.
cryssT on December 05 at 4:52 p.m.
Actually citizens would notice, because the mail would go from Spokane to Tacoma and back to Spokane. That happened to Olympia years ago. I don’t mind if it takes 2-5 days for first class to be delivered - that’s the way it was years ago. Most of my bills are online, only thing that comes in mail is occasional check, offers to refinance and some catalogs.
detroitdude on December 05 at 5:14 p.m.
@Jethro and Crazy Dazzee…
I’ve never in my life gone into a post office and had a huge ordeal or problem mailing a letter or a package. Dramatic much??
Shadedmuse on December 05 at 5:27 p.m.
I say close Spokane and keep Montana’s open. Spokane is an urban waste lad that will shrink in population and become a ghost town.
misjustice on December 05 at 6:04 p.m.
Me either, Detroit…
Glad that we are keeping our processing center!
; )
D Statler on December 05 at 6:43 p.m.
We’ll see how much you yahoos’ will miss that mail truck when it stops coming. I wish the USPS had seen the writing on the internet wall sooner and adjusted their buisness practices. I enjoy the convience of having them close. I hope they can regain profitability. 1st class mail may be a thing of the past before we know it.TOO exspensive to run those trucks everyday.
misjustice on December 05 at 7:09 p.m.
Actually, it’s Darrell Issa and his bill requiring the USPS to advance fund pensions and health care seventy-five years in advance that’s causing the greatest financial woes; it’s his little gifty to his lobbyist friends from Fed-Ex and UPS…
“The so-called “Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006” required the Postal Service to pre-fund healthcare benefits of future retirees, a 75-year liability over a 10-year period. Yup, that’s right — prepayment for postal employees that have not even been born yet. Contrary to what Issa claims, the Postal Service is the only federal agency or private business under this onerous obligation.”
“The requirement costs the Postal Services $5.5 billion a year, about the amount the economic downturn is costing the post office. Without the prefunding requirement, the Postal Service would have broken even financially despite mail volume declines. With it, however, the Postal Service is moving toward default — a deliberately manufactured crisis that could give the privatizers and profiteers in Congress an opportunity to “restructure” America’s oldest independent public service.”
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/09/11047/darrell-issa-goes-postal-job-killing-retiree-bill-moves-states
ANOTHER deliberately manufactured crisis, brought to ‘Merica by the Republican’t party…
Just sayin’…
terryalan on December 05 at 7:54 p.m.
And sayin’ correctly, miss…….
terryalan on December 05 at 7:57 p.m.
I know this will have no effect on our resident gotmeminescrewyou types, however many, many people actually depend on the mail for things like, oh, I don’t know….unemployment checks? What’s that? You would FORCE people to get direct deposit and join the great American banking rip off?
I don’t think so…..
terryalan on December 05 at 7:59 p.m.
And hey, local jobs and taxes for the general good and pumping into the local economy…
damned leeches….
de3 on December 05 at 8:12 p.m.
The USPS main problem is that first class mail volume is falling 7.5% year after year and the USPS was losing money for years before the 2006 legislation. They have a monopoly on first class mail, but that market is going away - everything else, including arguing about setting aside pension funding is a red herring.
Here is the Congressional Research Service report from 2002.
http://stuff.mit.edu/afs/sipb/contrib/wikileaks-crs/wikileaks-crs-reports/RL31069.pdf
There you can learn that the USPS was not funding its pension obligations, which like any other company today, are supposed to be pre-funded. A collapse of the USPS would mean no pension for postal workers eventually - that would be way bad, Right now, the USPS is in the hole for around $50 billion in unfunded pensions.
The USPS was already permitted by Congress to defer making its pension fund obligations for a bit, but this year they did not give the USPS another extension. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974 required private companies to set aside funding for their pensions - before that, if your employer went out of business, you lost your pension benefits. The ERISA set up the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation too, which I think is nearly out of money at the moment.
The 2006 Postal act requires the USPS, which is a corporation, to catch up and meet the same standards as private companies with a pension. As of 2005, US companies had set aside about $1.8 trillion to fund future pensions.
In 2002: “Legacy costs. In addition to its debt to the Treasury which will approach $13 billion by the end of FY 2002, GAO also notes that USPS must pay $32 billion in retirement liabilities, $15.8 billion interest expense on this liability, $6.0 billion in worker compensation claims, and an obligation amounting to at
least $45 billion for retiree health benefits that is not carried on the books though it should be. These numbers will only grow in the future, and servicing these debts for past delivery services will become an ever-greater proportion of postage prices to be paid by future users of the Postal Service (or by the taxpayer).”
This is quite a mess for the USPS - don’t know what should be done to fix this other than to extend future payments, again, for a while. You’ll never get out of debt by taking on more debts though.
Jethro_toll on December 05 at 9:40 p.m.
Gee they should relocate it to the geographical center of the State. Ellensburg. Lots of cheap land an lots of cheap labor an centrally located on major freeways.
catfuzz on December 05 at 9:41 p.m.
Just shut down the whole bloated system and let Fed-ex and UPS take over. While we’re at it, shut down Amtrak and Greyhound, too. Private business will ALWAYS do a better job than government subsidized bureaucracies.
nslopeofw on December 05 at 9:55 p.m.
The USPS has NEVER been profitable. It doesn’t matter which congressman did what this year. They have been raising the price of postage every year or 2 for the last 40 years. As long as they are run by the government, they will be a drain on taxpayers. I see no reason to keep them. Fed EX and UPS do a great job. Dump the government run piece, contract it out out to another company, after all, they sort and deliver mail. I’m guessing there are a lot of unemployed people out there that would love to be inside, warm, and making money to sort and deliver mail. Minimum wage to sort, say $14 an hour to deliver. (CDL required)
misjustice on December 06 at 6:19 a.m.
The USPS is self-funded-not supported by tax payer dollars, the bill by Issa was passed during the glorious Cheney years-not this year, and it was considered so important to democracy that it was enshrined in the Constitution…just to correct a few talking points.