Postal Service to close Hickory facility, transfer some jobs to Greensboro
CONOVER (MCT) — City officials received formal notice Tuesday that the U.S. Postal Service’s distribution facility in the area will close in February.
A letter sent to Conover Mayor Lee Moritz said the Hickory Processing and Distribution Facility, which is on First Street West in Conover, will be consolidated with the Greensboro Processing and Distribution Center.
The letter goes on to say the consolidation will be a significant savings for the US Postal Service.
“Because of the drastic decline in mail volume, the Postal Service is in a fiscal crisis and must take action to reduce the size of its mail processing network,” the letter says. “Consolidating operations such as this is necessary if the Postal Service is to remain viable to provide mail service to the nation.”
“Career employees” at the facility, the letter says, will be reassigned to the Greensboro center or other vacant positions.
Conover City Manager Donald Duncan said the city heard unofficially last week that the decision to close the local distribution center had been made.
Duncan said his reaction and that of other city officials was one of disappointment, adding that the closing will be a disservice to residents in the area. He said he sees the postal service as a vital service similar to sewer and water service.
“It should be no different than any other public service,” Duncan said.
Duncan said that’s something that Postal Service leadership has forgotten. He said they lost their mission and didn’t plan adequately for the future.
Area leaders, including Conover council members, and postal employees put up a fight to keep the distribution center open. Duncan said different council members at different times made trips to Raleigh and Washington, DC to lobby for keeping the center going. He said they also petitioned U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry and U.S. Sen. Richard Burr.
The Postal Service letter sent to Moritz said the community’s input was “valued and carefully considered before making this decision.”
Duncan said it’s a shame that a letter mailed from Conover to Hickory will have to go to Greensboro before it reaches its destination.
While the letter from the Postal Service says customers will continue to receive the same service, Duncan isn’t so sure. He believes clients of the service will suffer.
The Postal Service is in jeopardy of defaulting at the end of September on a mandated $5.5 billion payment to the Treasury without action from Congress.
The Postal Service, which does not receive tax money for its operations, is not seeking federal funds.
Instead, postal officials want changes in the way they operate, including relief from the requirement that it prefund medical costs. No other federal agency has to prefund retiree health benefits, but because of the way the federal budget is organized the money counts as income to the government, so eliminating it would make the federal deficit appear larger.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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