Mail processing center stays in Sioux City

Sioux City will keep its U.S. Postal Service mail processing center.

That announcement came Monday afternoon following nearly three years of studying the possibility of consolidating that center with Sioux Falls.

"There were cost savings to be had, but none worth the consternation in the community and among customers," said Richard Watkins, spokesman for the U.S.P.S. Des Moines-based Hawkeye district.

He thanked the customers, employees, businesses and legislators that gave their input on the decision. One hundred people are employed at the Sioux City mail processing plant.

"The decision was not made in a vacuum," Watkins said.

All of Le Mars' weekly mail goes through the Sioux City processing center. Saturday mail from Le Mars is sent to the Sioux Falls processing center.

In November 2005, the U.S.P.S. announced the feasibility study to find out if merging the Sioux City processing center with the one in Sioux Falls would be beneficial. The Sioux Falls center has a little more sophisticated equipment and extra airlift capacity with the U.S.P.S. contract with FedEx there, Watkins said.

In April 2006, a public hearing was held to gather input for the customers and businesses that might be impacted by shifting the mail processing center.

"Throughout the process we said that no final decision has been made. We did take people's input seriously," Watkins said.

Watkins noted that only about 12 of the 100 employees at the Sioux City facility would have been impacted by the shift.

"It was never a question of their work ethic or ability to serve the customers," he said of the employees in SIoux City.

Even if the decision had been made to merge the center with Sioux Falls' mail processing operation, one thing wouldn't have changed, Watkins said.

"They were never in danger of losing Sioux City's historic postmark," he said.

U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley and Tom Harkin as well as Representative Steve King also made efforts to help keep the processing center in Sioux City.

All three praised the U.S.P.S.'s decision Monday.

The feasibility study on Sioux City's center was part of a larger effort by the U.S.P.S. to make their service as efficient as possible, Watkins said.

"The Postal Service is not tax supported like other government agencies. the last time we used tax dollars was in 1982," he said. "What you try to do is make (the Postal Service) as efficient and effective as possible."

The U.S.P.S. delivers to 1.8 million new address points every year, Watkins said. It has a fleet of 220,000 vehicles, so fuel prices carry a heavy impact.

"The landscape has changed, and certainly the economy has as well," Watkins said. "The Postal Service will continue to study internally how to be most efficient."