Mail delivery times could lengthen in the Purchase area with the oncoming closure of Paducah’s processing plant.
The US Postal Service announced the consolidation of more than 80 mail facilities this week.
Mail processed in Paducah would go to Evansville, Indiana, once the closure is complete. American Postal Workers Union Local 2500 Vice President Gerl McKinney said the process to cease operations should begin January 2015 and finish by that fall.
“The whole system is slowing down, and every time they close down a processing plant it slows down even more,” he said. “What we’re gonna see is a degradation of service for the area. That’s really kind of ironic because the Paducah plant is one of the most efficient plants in the eastern area.”
McKinney said one reason USPS still plans to close the Paducah plant may be that it is a small facility. He said Paducah would lose nearly 50 jobs, some of them part time, when the processing plant closes.
McKinney added that the closure will add an extra step in the delivery process delaying delivery times.
“The mail will get on a truck at Murray and go to Paducah, do a dock transfer, go to Evansville, Indiana, and it will be processed. And then it would be put back on a truck sent to Paducah, dock transferred again to a truck to Murray, and then out for delivery,” he said. “Right now we’ve got a pretty good record for overnight delivery within the 420 area. Once they do the change it will be a two-day process.”
McKinney said the union is going to fight the closure. The Paducah facility was set for closure in 2012 and 2014, but USPS delayed then cancelled its decision.
