The U.S. Postal Service is rescheduling a public meeting that had been set for Jan. 31 to discuss controversial proposed changes to the Buffalo Processing and Distribution Center on William Street.
Postal union officials and Buffalo-area politicians have strongly objected to the Postal Service’s proposal to move some operations from William Street to a similar building in Rochester.
U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins rallied against the proposal alongside other elected officials and postal union leaders and members Friday outside the William Street facility.
“The relocation of operations from Buffalo to Rochester will result in delayed mail and diminished services,” Higgins recently wrote to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. “The USPS uses language like ‘modernization’ which doesn’t tell the full story of how services will be impacted and ultimately when changes are made it’s too late. If you live in Cheektowaga and send a card to your grandchild in Lackawanna, that mail would go to Rochester first, adding transportation costs and slowing delivery. That’s inefficient and the people of Western New York need to stand up and demand better from the USPS.”
USPS made an announcement on Jan. 16 about the meeting to discuss its proposal to convert the Buffalo facility from a regional processing and distribution center into a local one.
In a news release Friday evening, the Postal Service said it was postponing the Jan. 31 meeting because it needed more time to “finalize any specific improvements we may undertake at the Buffalo P&DC.”
The release also said the Postal Service’s “modernization evaluation” of the facility on William Street will not result in its closure or career employee layoffs at the facility.
The public input meeting will be rescheduled within the next several weeks, the release said.
The Postal Service said it was reviewing proposed changes to the Buffalo facility as part of a $40 billion investment…
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