U.S. Rep Rick Nolan once again urged Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe to halt the closing of the Duluth mail sorting facility scheduled for April 2015. In a letter to Mr. Donahoe on January 16, Nolan expressed serious disappointment with the U.S. Postal Service’s (USPS) failure to fulfill its obligations to adequately study the impact of consolidations on service standards and inform the public of the impacts.
In late 2014, the USPS Inspector General determined that the Duluth mail processing feasibility study was among many nationwide where the USPS failed to complete the requisite service standard impacts evaluations and worksheets.
“I was disturbed to learn that the USPS failed to fulfill its regulatory and statutory obligation to adequately study the impact of consolidations on service standards and inform the public of these impacts,” Nolan said. “The USPS must cease – or at the very least, delay – its consolidations to provide time for the public to see and comment on the service standard worksheets.”
“Without these completed worksheets, it is difficult for many of my constituents to fully understand how the consolidation will affect them,” Nolan said. “The USPS needs to adequately inform their local customers.” Nolan went on to emphasize the importance of keeping the Duluth facility open, and extended another invitation to Mr. Donahoe, USPS leadership, and incoming Postmaster General Megan Brennan to visit the Duluth facility.
“The Duluth mail processing facility is one of the most efficient in the nation,” Nolan said. “It must be kept open to serve the people of our region in a manner to which they are entitled.” “A consolidation would destroy the many good-paying, middle class jobs provided by this operation, and would almost certainly create an inefficient process of sending local mail all the way to the Twin Cities to be processed, only to be returned for delivery – a colossal waste of fuel, time, and money.”
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