Kalispell post office's processing plant may be targeted

As part of a nationwide effort to cut costs, the U.S. Postal Service will study Kalispell’s mail processing center to see if it can be shut down and folded into larger operations in Spokane.

A mail processing center in Missoula will also be studied to see if it can be folded into Spokane operations, the Postal Service announced Thursday.

“There are no changes the customer would see with the post offices. It would not affect the customer service, retail counter, lobby or mail delivery,” said Al DeSarro, a western region spokesman for the Postal Service.

The struggling Postal Service is also looking to consolidate a mail processing center in Wolf Point with one in Billings and an outgoing mail processing center in Helena with one in Great Falls.

The Kalispell study will take three to four months. If the Postal Service finds a chance to close the operation, a public meeting would be held to share findings and solicit public comment.

Kalispell Postmaster Richard Burley could not be reached for comment Thursday.

DeSarro estimated that there are 44 employees in the Kalispell processing center at the main post office branch on Meridian Road. Some of them also likely work in the retail end of the post office, he said.

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said Thursday that the processing center consolidation studies are part of a “grim new reality” the Postal Service faces, adding that it must cut a massive nationwide infrastructure that is no longer financially sustainable.

The Postal Service lost $8.5 billion last year and $3.1 billion in the last quarter.

Annual mail volumes have fallen by more than 43 million pieces in the last five years, eating away at Postal Service revenues.

Single piece first-class mail is down by 36 percent in the last five years and 50 percent in the last 10 years.

Looking for $3 billion in annual savings, the Postal Service aims to close 252 of its 487 mail processing centers around the country and lay off up to 35,000 of its workers.

It also hopes to slow first-class mail delivery from a one-to three-day window to two to three days.

Fifty mail processing centers around the country, including three in Montana, already have closed in the past year, DeSarro said.

Additionally, some 3,700 post offices are being reviewed for possible closure, including 85 in Montana.

The Postal Service is also asking Congress for legislation that would let it end Saturday mail delivery and delay a $5.5 billion annual prepayment for future retirement costs that is due by Sept. 30. The Postal Service has also asked Congress to return $6.9 billion of retirement system overpayments.

Without action by Congress, the Postal Service has said it may not be able to make that $5.5 billion payment, putting it at risk of default.

“Five-day delivery would save the Postal Service $3 billion to $5 billion a year, and surveys have said that 75 percent of the public think that’s one of the best cost savings the Postal Service can do,” DeSarro said of the proposal.

Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and his colleagues on the Senate Appropriations Committee voiced opposition Thursday to several Postal Service proposals.

The committee passed legislation that would preserve six-day mail for at least another year and prevent the Postal Service from moving any mail processing centers or other postal facilities without fully examining all associated costs and consequences.

In a letter, Tester asked Donahoe to cancel his proposals to close Montana’s processing centers to give Congress a chance to pass the legislation.

Tester argued that the Postal Service’s proposals for five-day mail and post office closures disproportionately harm rural America, and that it could save more money with fewer harmful consequences by consolidating post offices in major metropolitan areas.

“As you seek the fiscal balance we both agree is needed, it is critical that the Postal Service not balance its books on the back of rural America,” Tester wrote. “I hope that future decisions by the Postal Service better reflect that reality.”

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.