US Postal Service to Close Waite Park Facility in 2015

WAITE PARK -- The U.S. Postal Service has announced they will implement Phase 2 of their consolidation plan which includes four mail processing facilities in Minnesota.

We told you last August about plans to consolidate operations at the Waite Park processing plant with those in Minneapolis. No layoffs were issued and mail service was uninterrupted for Postal Service customers.

Starting in January 2015, the Postal Service will begin consolidating 82 facilities nationwide, including closing the mail distribution operations at the Waite Park facility. However, the Waite Park location will still be used as a transportation hub and some local distribution. The other Minnesota locations slated for closing include facilities in Duluth, Bemidji and Mankato.

Postal Service Media Relations Manager Dave Partenheimer says they are in the beginning stages of the process and don't know the order in which the processing centers will close or what the overall impact will be on employees. The Postal Service is working to reassign union employees within the Post Office and reassign non-union employees as part of their goal to avoid workforce reductions.

The Postal Service says mail delivery will only be slightly impacted with First-Class Mail reaching its destination in an average of 2.25 days, up from 2.14 days.

The consolidations are expected to be completed in the fall of 2015 and save the Postal Service $750,000,000 a year and $3,500,000,000 over the next five years.

More information on the consolidations will be announced in the coming weeks.

For a link to the Postal Service letter sent to customers, click here.
To look at Frequently Asked Questions, click on this Postal Service FAQ link.