A mail carrier loads a mail truck with mail on March 1 in Lake Tahoe, California.
After months of trying to sell a plan to transport mail from Reno to Sacramento, California, where it would be sorted and distributed, and then back to the Silver State, the U.S. Postal Service announced Tuesday that it was abandoning the plan.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy proposed moving the processing center from Western Nevada to Sacramento earlier this year, saving $4.5 million annually. U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen, Representative Mark Amodei and Governor Joe Lombardo called on DeJoy and the USPS Board of Directors to stop what they see as a disruptive change to the Reno processing facility.
“Today’s announcement is a victory for our postal workers and all of our families in Northern Nevada,” Cortez Masto said in a press release Tuesday.
According to USPS, the Postal Service has identified additional operational improvements and related refinements that are within the scope of existing service standards.
“The service standards reflect the USPS’s commitment to the number of days it takes for mail to travel from its sender to its recipient,” the postal service said in an Aug. 22 filing with the Postal Regulatory Commission.
In addition to working with the Nevada delegation and local politicians, Cortez Masto joined a group of more than 20 fellow senators in writing a letter calling on DeJoy to stop any changes or relocations to USPS processing facilities that could impact mail delivery and eliminate jobs nationwide.
Rosen called the plan wrong and expressed concern that it would harm people who depend on timely mail delivery.
“The announcement that this widely opposed transfer of local mail processing operations will no longer occur is a major victory for our seniors, veterans and all the people of Northern Nevada who depend on timely mail delivery,” Rosen said in a statement.
While DeJoy’s proposal earlier this year could impact mail service between Reno and Sacramento, residents of the surrounding communities of Carson City, Gardnerville, Winnemucca and Fallon questioned the timeliness of the plan and wondered if mail delivery in rural Nevada would take additional days.
The congressional delegation said severe weather over the Sierra Nevada would delay mail delivery. During the winter of 2023-24, Interstate 80 was closed intermittently because of storms. Earlier this year, after a major storm devastated the Sierra, Amodei said the proposal was made without much care or understanding of the potential consequences for his constituents.
In May, Lombardo reiterated his opposition to the planned downsizing and relocation of the Reno plant.
