By Niki Turner | [email protected]
RBC | Responding to pressure from 24 senators, including Sen. Michael Bennet (CO), United States Postal Service (USPS) Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said he will pause plans to convert the regional processing center in Grand Junction to a local center, causing Western Slope mail to be diverted to Denver for processing.
When DeJoy announced the plan earlier this year, postal workers and members of the public reacted, citing risks of delayed essential mail services for rural communities, among other concerns.
A bipartisan group of 24 US senators from states where the USPS had announced similar plans sent a letter to DeJoy on May 8, 2024, stating in part, “We call on USPS to pause all changes, pending a full study of this plan by its regulator.”
DeJoy responded to one of the senators last week, stating, “In response to the concerns you and your colleagues have expressed, I will commit to pause any implementation of these moves at least until January 1, 2025. Even then, we will not advance these efforts without advising you of our plans to do so, and then only at a moderated pace of implementation.”
Bennet and Sen. John Hickenlooper had previously written to DeJoy in April with the same concerns, stating, “We are concerned that USPS’s plan could impact local mail delivery when these delays occur, which is alarming when constituents already suffer from inconsistent and unreliable mail service.”
Also of concern for Western Slope mail delivery is another proposed plan, set to begin in September, to “optimize” local transportation by reducing the number of mail pickups for rural post offices which could extend the time it takes for mail to enter the “mail stream” from rural areas.
For now, Grand Junction will remain the regional processing center.
