Postal Service, public clash over Mattis Ave proposal

Mar. 13—CHAMPAIGN — The U.S. Postal Service is doubling down on its position that transferring processing operations from the North Mattis Avenue plant to Chicago will not have a negative impact on delivery times, but members of the public aren't convinced.

The agency held a public input meeting on its facility review Tuesday night, with about 100 to 150 people in attendance. During the time for public comment, several expressed skepticism about the plan, including county and city officials.

Public comments on the proposal can also be submitted online, said USPS spokesman Tim Norman. All written comments must be received by March 27.

"Every organization goes through change and they have to modernize and keep up with competition," Norman told The News-Gazette.

The Postal Service told meeting attendees that the initial findings support turning the Mattis Avenue post office into a local processing center that is co-located with a sorting and delivery center. They also said the business case supports "transferring mail processing outgoing operations" to the South Suburban Processing and Distribution Center in Bedford Park and the Chicago South Regional Processing and Distribution Center (RPDC).

RPDCs are "large facilities that act as central hubs for a given region," USPS officials said.

"Utilizing modern equipment and economies of scale, these facilities will process all mail and packages for an area, and they will serve as the transportation conduits that connect regional transportation to the national network," the agency stated. "RPDCs will support and be supported by local processing centers (LPCs), which will process primarily destinating mail and serve as an aggregation point for destinating volume (i.e., product that is headed out for delivery)."

The agency said that local mail from the Champaign area to the Champaign area will not be delayed under the plan. While such mail will be processed in Chicago before returning the local LPC, officials said that local mail will "continue to be processed and delivered in two days."

As a hypothetical example, the agency said if a letter was addressed from one Champaign area address to another and put into a collection box on Monday, it would be collected at a post office, taken to the LPC, combined with other mail and transported to Chicago that evening. It would then be processed overnight and transported back the Champaign plant on Tuesday, sorted that night and brought to a local post office on Wednesday to be delivered that day.

However, Brian Cunningham, president of the local American Postal Workers Union chapter, expects the change to add a day or two to processing times.

He said that under the current system, mail is picked up from homes or dropped off at post offices, transferred to the Mattis Avenue plant and processed in the evening.

From there, outgoing mail is processed and shipped out at night. Local mail is usually processed at the end of the next day and delivered within one or two days of when it was dropped off, he said.

He added that the exception is packages, which are usually delivered overnight, though he expects this to change if the proposal is implemented.

Postal Service officials stated that distance is only one variable in designing an efficient logistics network; other factors include the availability and capability of equipment, the number of hubs in a network, transportation between hubs, "the proper coordination of schedules across the network" and the availability of a workforce to facilitate the process.

"This proposed change will not affect local newspapers dropped off at local delivery units," USPS officials said. "Those periodicals do not go through the same sortation system as regular letters and would continue to be processed as they are today. Newspapers destined to other areas or not pre-sorted by ZIP code would be processed in Chicago and then directed to the appropriate LPC and local delivery unit."

The News-Gazette, which recently switched to mail delivery, has a staff member drop off papers at the Champaign distribution center on South Neil Street early in the morning, according to Publisher Paul Barrett. The bundles of pre-addressed papers are then delivered to about 70 local post offices in the circulation area.

The paper uses the Postal Service's "Exceptional Dispatch" program to guarantee same-day delivery.

The Postal Service has repeatedly said that there will be no career employee layoffs as a result of its plans.

However, it is estimated that 70 craft positions and four management positions may be reassigned due to the changes, said Frank Veal, USPS senior director for the Westshores Division.

He added that all reassignments for bargaining employees will be done in accordance with their respective collective bargaining agreements.

However, Cunningham said, "We don't want our employees being moved."

The Postal Service's presentation also outlined planned improvements, with officials saying the agency plans to invest between $15 million and $20 million into the local post office.

Prior to the meeting, concerned community members held a rally at the "Eternal Flame" sculpture on the University of Illinois Quad.

Champaign County Board Member Brett Peugh said he's worried that the changes could lead to delays for time-sensitive mail and have a negative impact on low-income residents who need to meet certain deadlines.

Other local officials, including Champaign County Clerk and Recorder Aaron Ammons, are concerned about the changes affecting election mail, though Postal Service officials said it will not have an impact.

Ammons, who spoke at the public input meeting, also expressed frustration that the agency had not reached out to him as part of its review.

Champaign County Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Laura Weis said that a poll of member businesses showed that 91 percent "are opposed to the downgrading of the Champaign facility," which they fear will have negative impacts on their operations.

"For me, it's really (about) protecting the postal workers," said rally attendee Lauren Senoff. "They're kind of the unseen pillars, I think, in our community."