Council votes unanimously to oppose mail processing relocation to Indy

The Bloomington City Council voted unanimously Wednesday in opposition to the U.S. Postal Service's plan to relocate its mail processing facility from Bloomington to Indianapolis.\n"It just doesn't make sense," said Council Vice President Dave Rollo.\nThe U.S. Postal Service has been considering relocating the facility since December 2005, with the stated goal of maximizing efficiency.\nKevin McCaffery, a representative of the American Postal Workers Union Bloomington Local 2122, argued that the move will result in a delay in local mail delivery and that the move does not follow the protocol called for by the Government Accountability Office.\n"There will be a degradation in service," McCaffery said. "It's the local communities that will suffer."\nCurrently, all mail originating with the 474 ZIP codes is processed locally at the Vernal Pike processing plant. Mail is collected from 49 "474" ZIP codes in six counties.\nThe Bloomington plant outranks the Indianapolis plant by 35 percent in terms of processing time, McCaffery said. He pointed out that adding the burdens of a 100-mile round trip to and from Indianapolis will have the negative effect of relaxing mail delivery standards.\nThe city council joins the Monroe County Council and Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan in keeping mail processing operations local in the interest of speed and efficiency as well as preserving community character.\n"Essentially, this resolution is asking the U.S. Postal Service to follow the recommendations of the GAO," said City Councilman Chris Gaal. "Especially because of the effect this change will have on this community"