Rx Express pharmacy in North Platte frequently mails time-sensitive medicines to customers from surrounding small towns, ranches and farms. The pending closure of the mail processing center in town has thrown a wrench into all that.
"If we lose the processing center, that means most of our patients won't be getting (medicine) the next day, or even the next day, or even the next day, and a lot of our seniors rely on getting it in a timely manner," said Jill Siemers-Belka, a pharmacist and owner of Rx Express.
But a decision announced Tuesday will stave off that fate for Rx Express's customers — and thousands of others across the Midlands — at least temporarily.
The U.S. Postal Service has agreed to delay until May 15 the closings or consolidations of 252 mail processing centers and 3,700 local post offices. Among the targets are mail processing centers in North Platte and Lincoln and post offices in Ithaca, Neb., and Percival, Iowa.
In a statement, the cash-strapped Postal Service said it would delay the closings to give Congress more time to pass legislation giving the service more authority and liquidity to stave off bankruptcy. The Postal Service, expected to default Friday on a required $5.5 billion payment to the Treasury, is forecast to lose a record $14.1 billion next year.
These troubles for the venerable service are a relatively recent phenomena. Things were humming along well until the Internet. First-class mail volume has plummeted about 27 percent since 2006, officials have said, and it could plunge 50 percent more by 2020.
At the same time, the impact of a 2006 law passed by Congress is to blame for at least some of the financial crisis. The Postal Service, which uses no tax money but is subject to congressional control of some functions, was ordered to "prepay" 75 years of retirees' health care obligations, something not required of any other federal agency, with $5.5 billion annual payments over 10 years.
In addition to delaying closings, the agreement announced Tuesday also means that cuts to first-class mail that would slow delivery and, for the first time in 40 years, eliminate the chance for stamped letters to arrive the next day, would not occur before May 15.
Previously, the agency said it had hoped to implement such cuts in April.
In the interim, the agency will continue the steps to review targeted facilities, including public input meetings, a press release from the Postal Service said.
Last Thursday, 21 U.S. senators from mostly rural states led by Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, signed a letter to congressional leaders asking them to halt closings for six months.
"What I feared very much is that the post office unilaterally would start making drastic cuts to processing plants, rural post offices and slow first-class mail service before Congress can pass postal reform," Sanders said. "So it's a step forward in terms of giving us time with certainty that rural post offices won't be closed."
In all, roughly 100,000 postal employees could be cut as a result of the various closures, resulting in savings of up to $6.5 billion per year.
Separate bills that have passed House and Senate committees would give it more authority to reduce delivery to five days per week, raise stamp prices and reduce health care and other labor costs.
The Senate bill would refund nearly $7 billion the government overcharged the Postal Service for the retirement fund, encourage a restructuring of health benefits and reduce its annual payments into the future retiree health account.
Siemers-Belka, the North Platte pharmacist, said mail service was particularly important for elderly rural customers on a day like Tuesday, in which much of western Nebraska was experiencing freezing rain and fog.
"It's questionable driving around in town, let alone 45 minutes away, on less-than-safe roads," she said.
Siemers-Belka was grateful for a temporary reprieve she hopes becomes permanent. But the prospect of the processing center closing looms like a dark cloud.
"We're dreading it, and the rural patients are dreading it. They are already very, very, concerned."
This report includes material from the Associated Press.
Contact the writer:
402-444-1310, andrew.nelson@owh.com
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