Several local post offices may close for good

Part of consolidation effort to cut costs, says Postal Service

Saturday, August 01, 2009

By Torsten Ove, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The U.S. Postal Service is considering closing a bunch of local post offices as part of its ongoing national consolidation effort to save money.

"We are in a situation now where we are looking at everything to reduce the costs so we do not have to increase our rates to the American public," said Tad Kelley, spokesman in Pittsburgh.

The Postal Service supports itself without tax money.

But fewer people are using the mail these days, and volume has been declining for years.

In 2006, the Postal Service handled 213 billion pieces of mail. For 2009, that number is expected to be around 175 billion.

In the last year alone, volume dropped by 9 billion pieces.

The economic downturn has also put the hurt on the Postal Service because a high percentage of first-class mail comes from banks, lenders and credit card companies, all of which have slashed costs and cut back on mailings.

The Postal Service recently jacked up its rate for sending first-class mail to 44 cents, but the erosion of volume means it has to cut more costs. So it's been studying realigning its operation.

Western Pennsylvania is one of 12 districts across the country in which the Postal Service is looking at possible consolidations of its large processing centers. Earlier this year, for example, the Postal Service said it was studying combining the New Castle center with the one in Pittsburgh, although the postal union opposed the idea.

The Postal Service later decided to keep the New Castle center open, transferring only a small portion of its volume to the operation in Pittsburgh.

The list released this week concerns only post offices, of which there are about 3,200 nationwide.

Victor Dubanic, spokesman for the Postal Service in part of Ohio, where dozens of offices could potentially close, stressed the list is preliminary. Local managers put it together and will study it in detail before recommending which offices to close.

After that, the Postal Service will prepare a questionnaire for public input at the affected offices before making a final decision.

The 13 local offices on the list:

• Allegheny Station, 395 Federal St., North Side

• Arsenal Branch, 186 42nd St., Lawrenceville

• Brookline Station, 612 Brookline Blvd.

• Corliss Branch, 651 Hillsboro St., Sheraden

• Etna Branch, 335 Butler St.

• Homewood Branch, 566 Brushton Ave.

• Millvale Station, 205 Lincoln Ave.

• Mt. Lebanon, 714 Washington Road

• Neville Island, 115 Second St.

• Uptown Branch, 1402 Fifth Ave.