U.S. Postal Service Delivers Drastic Changes

Facing bankruptcy, the U.S Postal Service is cutting its delivery standards for the first time in 40 years.

The agency is planning cuts to first-class mail next spring that will slow delivery, the Huffington Post reports.

Medfield Board of Selectmen chair Osler "Pete" Peterson told Medfield Patch he was "frustrated" with Monday's news.

"I have the same frustration I have with the failure of Congress to act to govern this country in so many other respects as well," Peterson said. "Congress now seems institutionally incapable of making the necessary decisions required to govern this country, even when faced with the most dire circumstances. Witness the recent inability of the Super Committee to agree on how to control our budget problems.

"I have heard the Postmaster General speak and he sounds like a thoughtful, intelligent man, who well knows the needs because his whole career has been with the post office, yet Congress is apparently standing inactively by while the post office crumbles – the post office should be given the right and proper tools to make its own decisions. A functioning post office was one of the first things the country's founders set up when they established this country, such was its importance – it is a shame if our current legislators cannot work with each other enough to preserve the service."

The implications would cut expectations that a letter dropped in the mail today, would arrive next day. Instead, a letter dropped in the mail today, may not reach a neighbor for at least two days. Other impacts could include time-sensitive newspapers and magazines, Netflix's DVD delivery and mail-order prescription drugs.

Medfield Town Administrator Michael Sullivan said the expected cuts are necessary, despite being "an inconvenience" for users.

"I suppose it will be an inconvenience for Medfield to not have next day delivery of mail, but given the financial condition of the USPS, I would say that it has to be done and the longer we delay addressing the problem, the more drastic the solution will be," Sullivan said.

The delivery changes are part of an estimated $3 billion in reductions from the Postal Service in an effort to quickly trim costs.

The cuts, which are being finalized now, would close roughly 250 of the nearly 500 mail processing centers across the United States by spring. An estimated 100,000 postal employees could be cut as a result of the processing center closures. The agency hopes to save upwards of $6.5 billion a year with these measures.

In Medfield, Sullivan doesn't expect to see much of an impact.

"The latest announcement for closing was for mail sorting facilities, so that also shouldn’t affect Medfield," Sullivan said.

Peterson wondered if the impending closure of regional sorting facilities might include Medfield and weighed the potential impact of a more drastic measure that may occur in the future – closing post offices altogether.

"I cannot imagine that alone [closing of regional sorting facilities] having much impact on Medfield, unlike if they actually closed the whole ," Peterson said. "The town gets about $86,000 per year in rent from the post office, so one would hate to have the town lose that income, just as a user, I would hate to have to drive out of town to use a post office."

Sullivan said he reviewed a list of post offices that were being considered for closing "a few months ago" and "Medfield was not scheduled for closing."

"Most of the ones on the list were cities and towns that had multiple post office locations or small rural towns in western Mass.," said Sullivan.

While it remains unclear at this time which post offices throughout Massachusetts could ultimately be shut down as a result of the USPS' current financial situation, Peterson said he has been an "admirer" of the services post offices provide and recalled seeing a lot of activity at the town's post office while campaigning for selectman.

"I like having a local post office in Medfield, that is both convenient and where we get to know the employees," Peterson said. "I am a great admirer of how well the post office actually does to deliver so much mail in, generally, so quick a time for little money ... When I collected signatures on my nomination papers to run for selectman and when I held campaign signs, I learned that the post office was the busiest place in town on a Saturday morning."

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