The U.S. Postal Service says they are moving forward with taking away Springfield’s mail processing center despite intense push back from the public and area lawmakers.
Elected officials in the region have held town halls, proposed new legislation, and protested in attempts to get the USPS to change course on moving the mail processing center to St. Louis.
The USPS will in turn make the Springfield post office into a Local Processing Center, significantly reducing its operations and the number of employees. Springfield becomes one of the 58 sites that USPS is shutting down, citing concerns about efficiency. Champaign, the Quad Cities, and Peoria are also losing their mail processing center as those operations are being moved to Chicago.
Central Illinois has regularly ranked in the bottom in the entire country for on-time deliveries by the USPS for all of its services.
State Senator Doris Turner expressed her frustration with the decision in a statement on social media last night: “The decision to convert the Springfield Post Office into a local processing center is extremely disappointing and will have lasting effects on residents across Central Illinois. There is no reason for our mail to be diverted out of state, but sadly this is our new reality. I joined hundreds of residents, postal workers and local elected officials at a town hall on March 26 to share our grave concerns about the proposal. USPS did not listen to our community. This will not only slow down mail delivery time, but also create life threatening hardships for those who rely on the mail service for their medication needs, especially our seniors.Springfield is home to Illinois’ state government. Why are we delaying delivery of important documents by sending them to Missouri? This is a poor decision that will affect each and every one of us.”
WICS reports that it will take up to a year before the Springfield site officially closes down.