City’s mail processing facility could close in May

The United States Postal Service’s Bloomington processing and distribution facility will move to the Indianapolis processing and distribution center May 15 if there is no action from Congress, said Mary Dando, Indiana spokesperson for the postal service.

“We were asked by Congress to hold off on closing,” she said. “In absence of no such action, we are moving the mail processing facility.”

In September, the postal service announced it was closing processing facilities across the country to help with the postal service’s $6.9 billion debt.

Currently, the postal service receives no tax dollars and no bailouts and is required to pay $5.5 billion annually to a retiree benefit program, Dando said.

“We are running out of money,” she said. “We are going bankrupt. We won’t make payroll by the end of summer.”

Operations from Lafayette, Muncie and Kokomo processing and distribution facilities and the Columbus, Ind., customer service mail processing center will be moved to the Indianapolis center in addition to Bloomington’s services.

The postal service also hopes to switch to mail delivery five days a week instead of six to help eliminate costs, Dando said.

“If those things took place, we would be looking at this in a different light,” she said.
With this move,  there will be no difference to retail operations or the business mail
entry unit.

“Customers in Bloomington won’t see any changes now,” Dando said.
Processing facilities employ 50 to 2,000 people, and Bloomington has a fairly small facility, Dando said.

The number of jobs lost is not known, she said.

— Claire Aronson