Post Office Closures: Little Impact on Rohnert Park

The U.S. Postal Service said Monday that the agency is still considering shuttering about half of the mail processing facilities nationwide — 252 out of 487 — part of a plan to avert bankruptcy, officials said, citing $3 billion in savings. The North Bay plant, located in Petaluma, is one of the centers slated for closure.

Officials announced the proposed closures first on Sept. 15, citing steep declines in first class mail volume — email and online bill pay have changed the business. The plan to close processing plants would also alter service standards. Instead of being delivered the next day, local mail would take two days.

"In order to actually close the 250 mail processing centers across country, we would have to change service standards from over night to two-day," said James Wigdel, a post office spokesperson. "So for example if you mail letter from Petaluma to Rohnert Park, it would get there next day. If service standard changes are implemented, it would get there in two days."

However, community post offices will not be impacted, he said, and no changes would go into effect before Jan. 1.

"Rohnert Park's post office faces absolutely no changes," Wigdel said. "And service standards will remain the same throughout the holiday period, so the delivery of holiday cards will not be affected."

If the plan to close Petaluma's mail processing center moves forward, Wigdel said the agency would save $2.5 million. Operations would be relocated to West Oakland.

“The U.S. Postal Service must reduce its operating costs by $20 billion by 2015 in order to return to profitability,” said David Williams, vice president of Network Operations in a statement. “The proposed changes to service standards will allow for significant consolidation of the postal network in terms of facilities, processing equipment, vehicles and employee workforce and will generate projected net annual savings of approximately $2.1 billion.”

This is part of the overall savings expected from the "network optimization initiative," which is projected to save up to $3 billion by 2015, according to post office officials.

"There's a good business case to close that facility," Widgel said. "But no decision has been made at this point. I don't want to speculate."

Officials are still collecting public comments via letter, email, phone and in community meetings. Post office officials collected public comments at a town hall meeting in Petaluma last month, which will be taken into consideration. Wigdel said also being studied is the impact on traffic, employees and unions, and postal service.

Following the initial study, managers in San Francisco's facility will weigh in, then the case will move to San Diego. If passed there, the proposed closures will move to Washington, D.C., where a final decision will be made. The outcome is expected no later than January, Wigdel said.