CHAMPAIGN — The U.S. Postal Service has announced some changes to its plan for its Mattis Avenue post office — which is good news for any residents concerned about local mail being sent to Chicago for processing.

The Postal Service announced it plans to “retain certain local mail-processing operations” at the facility, meaning that single-piece mail sent from one address in Champaign to another will not leave the region for processing.

The agency said this will also have positive impacts for the post office’s workforce.

The announcement released Friday morning said the Postal Service “initially anticipated staffing impacts” with its original plan to move certain operations from Mattis Avenue to its South Suburban Processing and Distribution Center in the Chicago suburb of Bedford Park and its Chicago South Regional Processing and Distribution Center in Forest Park.

“However, with the decision to keep these operations at the Champaign facility, there would be no anticipated employee impacts,” it said.

This does not mean that the Postal Service is rolling back all of its plans; it will still convert the post office at 2001 N. Mattis Ave. from a processing and distribution center to a local processing center.

“It is imperative for not only families and individuals but also for businesses to process their mail and receive their mail in a timely manner,” Champaign Mayor Deb Feinen said. “And we need our local facility and our local staff in order to ensure that happens. And so, again, while I’m cautiously optimistic based on the news today, it doesn’t mean we can stop advocating for services in the Champaign-Urbana area.”

Facility plans

The Postal Service previously announced its decision on facility changes in April, stating that processing of outgoing mail at the Mattis Avenue facility would be transferred to the facilities in Bedford Park and Forest Park.

At the time, it was expected to result in the loss of about 100 local jobs.

Postal Service officials have yet to reply to The News-Gazette’s inquiries about whether this new change would negate all of those cuts or just some and what other operations will still be transferred to the Chicago area.

The agency’s announcement Friday said that the plan includes $16.4 million in upgrades to the Mattis Avenue facility that will not affect business mail entry, post office, station and branch retail services.

The officials added that once the facility becomes a local processing center, it is expected to handle package mailing and shipping, letters, flats, express services, and bulk and permit mail. The Postal Service’s plan for the facility includes a focus on improving package processing and shipping capacity, which it said could lead to additional jobs in the future.

Broader strategy

The agency said that its decision to keep certain processing operations in Champaign is thanks to “a proposed operational strategy aimed at increasing efficiency, improving service quality and saving USPS an additional $3 billion per year nationwide.”

“Our proposed operational strategy will generate substantial savings for the Postal Service,” said Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who on Monday announced his intention to step down. “This strategy provides a solution that will ensure our organization can cover the cost of local originating mail processing operations in the Champaign facility.”

However, local residents may not be out of the woods yet when it comes to potential delivery delays.

The strategy referenced by DeJoy was introduced in August and includes consolidating delivery and collection for post offices “far from regional hubs,” with both activities primarily taking place in the morning.

The extent to which this plan could affect delivery in C-U and the surrounding area is unclear at this time.

DeJoy told The Washington Post in August that the changes would result in improved delivery times for customers within 50 miles of the largest processing facilities, but it couldn’t afford to maintain the same model for far-flung areas, which could add another day to current timetables there.

Postal officials have also said that the proposed changes will result in shorter delivery ranges for some products.

Lawmakers among critics

U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Springfield, and other members of Congress have been skeptical.

“While we understand that our constituents, regardless of proximity to larger postal facilities, would still be under the existing one-to-five-day service standards, USPS has already been failing to meet these delivery standards for many of our constituents,” the lawmakers wrote in an open letter to DeJoy in September.

“Adding up to 24 hours of additional delays for rural residents will only exacerbate the existing on-time-delivery problems our constituents are facing.”

The Postal Regulatory Commission also has several concerns regarding the proposal, as evidenced by an advisory opinion it issued on the strategy in late January.

Among other things, the commission said it felt that the cost-saving projections were “overly optimistic and unsubstantiated” and found that the plan would have “significant negative impacts” on rural communities.

“The Commission urges the Postal Service to reconsider whether the speculative, meager gains from this proposal outweigh the certain downgrade in service for a significant portion of the nation,” commission officials said, noting that the Postal Service estimates the strategy will save $3.6 billion to $3.7 billion annually, while its expenses in fiscal year 2024 were $81.8 billion.

The commission also said that both the Postal Service and the regulatory commission have received complaints from around the nation since the Postal Service launched its “Delivering for America” initiative in 2021. Facility reviews, such as the one that took place in Champaign, are one facet of that plan.

“I must say that I was confounded by the commission’s dismissal of cost savings of nearly $4 billion a year as ‘meager’ while characterizing service standard changes that are carefully designed and modest in impact within the current service standard day ranges as a ‘severe degradation’ in service that must be avoided at all costs,” DeJoy wrote in a response to the advisory opinion.

Postal Service officials said the new changes are a response to “stakeholder concerns” and only possible because of the other changes that are being made. According to The Washington Post, the agency’s board still needs to approve them before they can be implemented.

More upheaval may be looming

However, the future of the board could be in question if recent reports prove true.

The Post reported Thursday that, according to anonymous sources, President Donald Trump plans to issue an executive order that would fire the board of governors and put the Commerce Department in charge of the agency.

A White House spokesperson later said no such order was planned.

Budzinski said in a statement Friday afternoon that she would oppose Trump if he pursues such a plan.

“Any effort to diminish service or undermine our dedicated postal workers is unacceptable,” she said. “I will work with my colleagues to safeguard the integrity of the USPS while exploring solutions to enhance its service, rather than destroy it.”