Two North Bay Mail Distribution Centers to be replaced by Oakland

There are plans to close Petaluma’s two regional mail distribution centers. Mail destined for Sonoma, Marin, Lake and Mendocino counties would be processed in Oakland, saving an estimated $2.5 million a year. But such extra distances would mean first-class mail would no longer get assured overnight delivery.

Rosemarie Fernandez, district manager for the U.S. Postal Service: “The agency's volume of first-class mail is in free fall, while less lucrative standard mail remains constant”.  “We are in the middle of a three-month study period”. Her recommendation goes to a final verdict to be made in Washington, D.C.

228 employees would be affected by the closure of the two Petaluma locations. The facilities are the North Bay Processing and Distribution Center on North McDowell Boulevard and the North Bay Delivery Distribution Center on Southpoint Boulevard.

Most of the affected local workers are members of the postal workers union. Under their contract, the Postal Service must offer them jobs at locations within a 50-mile radius. But some of the workers doubted that would prove to be the case given the few openings available and the scale of the closures.

Supervisor David Rabitt and Petaluma Councilwoman Tiffany Renee pleaded their case as did representatives for Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, Congressman Mike Thompson and Assemblyman Jared Huffman.

There are more than 250 other similar facilities across the country, in a cost-slashing campaign designed to save the USPS $3 billion a year. Last year, the Postal Service lost $8.5 billion. Consolidating plants nationwide would mean more efficient use of resources, machinery and trucks and would reduce the total number of mail processing employees by 35,000. But approximately $400 million more in TRANSPORTATION COSTS.

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