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Don’t Want Mail Processing to Move to Sacramento? Public Comment for USPS Closes Thursday

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The Barbara F. Vucanovich United States Postal Service (USPS) Reno facility on Vassar Street could undergo some significant changes soon and may need to move outgoing mail processing operations to the Sacramento location, the postal service confirmed recently.

The last day for the public to give leave their comments about the proposed changes is Wednesday, February 28.

The decision, coming as part of the USPS’ ten year plan called “Delivering for America”, claims to make mail sent elsewhere more efficiently handled.

However, there are some who believe the changes will have more negative implications than USPS has let on. There are jobs that may be affected that the USPS doesn’t necessarily mention, such as contract delivery drivers. Furthermore, local businesses rely on the timely shipping and delivery of products, and individuals are increasingly dependent on medication that arrives by mail, local residents told KRNV. This could be affected by delays if the pass between Sacramento and Reno is closed.

Cari-ann Burgess, the interim registrar of voters, believes the change will affect the democratic process as well. She told the RGJ she’d recommend not to mail in ballots in future elections, or if you do, leave plenty of time.

The USPS, however, claims the move will better serve mail departing Reno.

“Mail and packages destined for outside our local area may receive better service and be more cost effectively distributed by aggregating it with mail and packages from other areas going to the same places,” Rod Spurgeon, a USPS spokesperson, told the Reno-Gazette Journal. He went on to say that local mail will not be delayed, local services will not be changed and their findings claim no immediate layoffs, but an “estimated net decrease of 11 craft and one management position are projected once the initiative is completed.”

Although the move is projected to go through, the USPS will “review all comments from the local community … before any decision is made” Spurgeon told the RGJ.

It is not too late to voice your opinion on the matter via public comment, which you can make here: surveymonkey.com/r/mpfr-reno-nv