A crowd packs the Milltown American Legion Hall for a hearing on the U.S. Postal Service’s proposal to consolidate and move operations from the Kilmer Processing & Distribution Center (P&DC) in Edison to the Dominick V. Daniels Center in Kearny. KATHY CHANG Keep the mail center in Edison open. That was the consensus among hundreds of people who attended the U.S. Postal Service’s public hearing on its proposal to consolidate and move operations from the Kilmer Processing & Distribution Center (P&DC) in Edison to the Dominick V. Daniels Center in Kearny. Many in attendance said they fear that mail service will suffer from the consolidation.
Among those advocating for the Edison site during the meeting were Edison Mayor Antonia Ricigliano, Piscataway Mayor Brian Wahler, Milltown Mayor Eric Steeber, a representative of U.S. Rep. Rush Holt’s office, union representatives, postal employees and customers.
The meeting was held Jan. 10 at the American Legion in Milltown.
The mail center in Edison is one of six New Jersey locations being studied since last fall for possible consolidation of redundant operations in order to achieve efficiencies and cost savings. The other locations are in Pleasantville, Eatontown, Kearny, Teterboro and Bellmawr. Nationwide, there are 252 postal centers whose operations are expected to be consolidated and transferred to regional facilities. There will be a reduction of 35,000 mail processing employees.
The Postal Service said that, with the deep decline in mail volume stemming from the poor economy and continuing electronic diversion, it has too many employees and equipment in some mail processing operations. While no final decision has been reached, initial study results support consolidating mail processing operations that are being performed at the Kilmer P&DC by taking advantage of available processing capacity at the Daniels site in Kearny, which is 28 miles away, in order to increase efficiency and improve productivity, postal officials said. The study is currently in review at the U.S. Postal Service Headquarters and the Northeast Area Office .
The Postal Service is accepting public comments until Jan. 25.
Priscilla Maney, manager for the Postal Service Northern New Jersey District, explained that since 2006 mail volume has declined by 20 percent. She explained that between 1970 and 2006, the postal service experienced a period of growth and built large facilities in order to stay ahead of the mail volume growth curve.
“Since 2006, that confidence of growth evaporated,” said Maney. “We currently want to stay ahead of cost curves.”
Maney said the aggressive radical network realignment plan is the Postal Service’s response, designed to return to profitability. Once all studies are finalized, the plans will be set in motion for 2013 and it is expected that the Postal Service will be able to stay ahead of the cost curve for the next decade. “We want to do this without any impact on customers and without laying off any employees,” she said, adding that the organization will try its best to accommodate each employee. “I know change can be unsettling. The challenge is the reduction in the workforce. We do not want to lay people off, but it may come to that.”
The Postal Service hopes to consolidate from 487 mail processing facilities nationally to approximately 200, resulting in billions of dollars in savings. The proposed annual savings in the draft Area Mail Processing (AMP) study for the Kilmer and Daniels sites total approximately $17,052,238. Within that total is a proposed annual mail processing employee savings of $6,887,431. It is projected that 236 of the current 500 employee positions will be eliminated. Nine supervisory and management positions will be impacted. There is a proposed annual management savings of $2,329,409 and an annual maintenance savings of $8,044,816.
Retail services and the business mail acceptance would remain at the Kilmer facility.
Local collection box pickup times may change as a result of consolidation, but a local postmark would be available for stamped first-class mail, and delivery times of mail to residences and businesses would not change, postal officials said. The proposed consolidation would support a twoto three-day service standard for first-class mail. Maney said this two- to three-day standard would be more efficient for transportation and would reduce the postal service’s footprint. Elected officials who attended the meeting received applause for their comments against the merger.
Wahler said Piscataway is formally opposing the changes at the Kilmer P&DC by passage of a resolution, which was approved on Jan. 10.
“The growing population trend in Middlesex County has not declined, it is the second most populated county in the state,” he said. “In the 1970s, officials worked hard to get the building facility in Edison. Please keep in mind the shift in demographics and the hard work that has gone into the facility.”
Ricigliano said her husband’s side of the family has 110 years of service in the postal business, noting that her father-in-law “worked in the business when they carried side-arms.”
The Edison mayor said the Kilmer P&DC site must be kept open not only for the customers but for the employees.
“Mass layoffs are not going to help our employees or the facility,” she said. “Some may call it snail mail, but I believe in it and I don’t think I am alone. I sent out 600 Christmas cards, spending about $500 on postage stamps, and I mail out checks.”
Ricigliano said the Postal Service also has a wonderful history.
“Future generations should come to know, enjoy and respect the historic value [of the service],” she said.
Metuchen resident and attorney Daniel Lebar said he uses the Kilmer P&DC because of the unique convenience of 24-hour mail drop.
“The Edison location in Raritan Center has the national roads and better transportation than Kearny does,” he said. “I think local post offices should be able to sort in town mail. It is literally nonsense to me. I live in a town that is 2.2 square miles, where one can walk 40 minutes to get [from one side to the other]. I am better off hand-delivering my mail to my correspondents.”
Other residents said that with continuous increases in interest rates on credit cards, they are reluctant to pay bills electronically. By mailing checks, the said, they can be assured that they have paid their bills on time. Representatives from the postal employee unions came to express their dissent on the proposal. Many said it does not make sense to have mail sent to Edison and then shipped to Kearny, just to be processed and shipped back to Edison for distribution.
“This is a cash cow for Congress,” said John H. Dirzius, Northeast Region coordinator of the American Postal Workers Union.
The representatives said the proposal would delay mail and drive customers to use the Internet. In a statement released prior to the hearing, the Central Jersey Area LocalAFL-CIO said the changes would affect 447,590 customers with zip codes beginning with 079, 088 and 089. The organization said mail would be collected earlier in the day and arrive later, with delays of up to several days in the time it takes to send and receive mail.
Union representatives at the meeting also said the changes would be unfair to the employees who would be relocated farther away from their families.
With the meeting being held in Milltown, many local residents came out to fight for the restoration of a permanent post office in that borough. The post office building has been closed due to damage caused by flooding during Hurricane Irena, and the operation is temporarily being housed in a trailer. Postal officials told residents they have no plans to eliminate Milltown’s post office operation.
Written comments regarding the Area Mail Processing Feasibility Study on Kilmer P&DC to Dominick V. Daniels P&DC may be sent to: Manager of Consumer and Industry, USPS Northern NJ District, 494 Broad St.; Newark, NJ, 07102-9331. All comments must be postmarked by Jan. 25.
It was unclear when a decision would be made, but the Postal Service said in December that, in response to a request made by multiple U.S. senators, it agreed to delay the closing or consolidation of any post office or mail processing facility until May 15.