PORT ANGELES — None of the post offices on the North Olympic Peninsula is in danger of being shut down, the Port Angeles postmaster said Monday.
The cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service might close as many as 3,700 post offices and lay off 120,000 workers to pay its debt. The agency has been losing money for years as more and more people are using email and private package carriers.
Postmaster Gen. Patrick Donahoe warned Congress last week that the Postal Service can’t pay the $5.5 billion it owes on retirees’ future health coverage by a Sept. 30 deadline. The Obama administration gave the agency an extra three months to pay it.
Postmaster Lisa Jones told Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce members Monday that there has been a lot of talk about cuts — but nothing specific.
One of the options is to cut Saturday delivery. The Postal Service has said it would save about $3 billion per year if it eliminated Saturday mail.
“It’s kind of a complicated situation, and really what we’re asking is for Congress to change a few things to free us up to continue to run efficiently,” Jones told about 60 chamber members at their weekly luncheon at the Red Lion Hotel.
“If that happens, we may not have to go to the five-day delivery or start closing offices.
“I’m optimistic that it will all work out.”
The postmaster general will release more information about the crisis Friday, Jones said.
“As far as I know, there wouldn’t be any effect to Port Angeles or to any of the offices around on the Peninsula here,” Jones said.
None of the Peninsula’s post offices is listed in a study for a retail-replacement option in which “village post offices” would be turned over to local businesses like pharmacies and grocery stores, according to www.usps.com.
“I think what they’re looking at now is closing more of our processing plants because there’s just not [enough] mail going through them anymore to sustain them,” Jones said.
Because the Postal Service is part of the federal government, changes in how it operates require an act of Congress.
“Some of the things that the postmaster general is trying to change is to free us up from being so restricted and being able to respond to the changing marketplace quicker than we have in the past,” Jones said.
“We expect to hear — hopefully in the next two weeks, maybe in the next week — a proposal from the president for helping the post office or saving the post office,” Jones said.
Jones said the post office hasn’t used taxpayers’ money since 1971. It is not asking for a bailout or tax revenues, she added, but rather legislation that would free it from pre-paying into the retirement fund. It also wants to recoup the money it has already overpaid, Jones said.
Most of Jones’ half-hour presentation Monday was from a Postal Service marketing DVD that outlined how to buy and sell items on eBay, a Postal Service partner. The DVD explained how to print Postal Service labels on eBay.
“It [eBay] has opened up a lot of home-based businesses, which we have a lot of here in Port Angeles,” Jones said.
“There are many, many people who work out of their homes and sell their products, or things that they make, or antiques and things like that.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
