By Andy Schor
Few Michigan residents are strangers to the fallout that comes with state and federal budget cuts. With many lawmakers reluctant to embrace sustainable solutions to our budget problems, vital services that our area families and businesses rely on continue to be slashed (and in some cases eliminated completely) at every level of government.
One of the most alarming possibilities currently being discussed in Washington is the closure of the United States Postal Service Processing and Distribution Center on Collins Road in Lansing and subsequent transfer of that facility’s services to Grand Rapids. This is being justified by a feasibility study conducted by the U.S. Postal Service which is being called into question by a number of regional leaders.
As the Ingham County Commissioner representing the Collins Road Post Office, I sponsored and passed a resolution opposing the closure and calling on Congressman Rogers and our U.S. Senators to fight this closure as our federal government representatives. A large coalition has organized to oppose this closure. This coalition includes businesses (Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce), the Lansing Economic Area Partnership (LEAP), labor unions (Postal Workers), and others. I hope all residents of the greater Lansing area will contact their Members of Congress and ask them to oppose this closure.
The closure of this facility, which handles three to five million pieces of mail on a daily basis (including a half-million pieces of first-class mail) would severely impact postal services to residents and businesses throughout mid-Michigan. The delayed mail delivery due to the transferring of services to Grand Rapids wouldn’t just impact important regional entities like state government, Michigan State University and General Motors, though. It would also have wide-ranging negative impacts on citizens who rely on effective and efficient postal service for services like meeting bill payment deadlines, having medication delivered, and other important timely correspondences. The proposed consolidation could delay the delivery of first-class mail by several days. Now, through the Collins Road center, mail is processed overnight.
Even worse, the USPS’s plan would cause the loss and displacement of nearly 200 Lansing-area employees, which in turn would have a tremendously negative impact on our still-recovering local economy that has been tattered by a national recession. These 200 jobs do not include the subsidiary businesses that deal with the post office, such as Pre-Sort Services, and an unknown number of these private sector jobs are at great risk to be lost.
Our area businesses and residents deserve a fair, transparent, and realistic assessment of the proposed consolidation of the USPS’s Lansing and Grand Rapids Processing and Distribution Centers. That assessment must be public, and it must include input from our area’s economic leaders. The magnitude of this issue demands it.
We simply cannot continue to address our country’s fiscal challenges by eliminating the very services that our residents expect and need from government at the local, state, and federal level.
Andy Schor is an Ingham County Commissioner. He is also running for State House Representative in the 68th District.
This was printed in the February 26, 2012 – March 10, 2012 Edition
