Postal Service pauses plans to convert Springfield and Champaign facilities until 2025

  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (WCIA) — The United States Postal Service is pumping the brakes on a program to convert nearly 60 facilities across the country, including ones in Champaign and Springfield.

In a letter to Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) from earlier this month, USPS Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said the Postal Service will not implement the changes until after January 1. This means both the Processing and Distribution Center in Champaign and Springfield will operate as normal for the rest of the year.

Why the USPS is urging homeowners to fix their mailboxes

“It is my hope that this commitment to pause Mail Processing Facility Reviews activity will work to restore confidence in the desired positive outcomes our modernization actions are meant to achieve from both a service excellence and cost savings perspective, and at a pace of network change that is acceptable,” DeJoy wrote in the letter.

DeJoy warns the savings from the consolidations of a minimum of $133 million annually will be delayed due to the pause as well.

The full letter can be found here.

The United States Postal Service planned to turn both the Champaign and Springfield centers into Local Processing Centers and move the distribution of the mail to the south suburbs of Chicago and St. Louis, respectively.

USPS said no career layoffs will happen because of the change.

The proposed change to relocate services is a part of USPS’s “Delivering For America” 10-year strategic plan.

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCIA.com.