After months of uproar and controversy, along with many Nevada Government officials speaking on behalf of Nevada residents over the distribution and processing of Nevada's mail being moved to Sacramento, the USPS has decided to abandon that plan.
Originally the United States Postal Service in a letter to recipients of northern Nevada explained the mail would be rerouted through west Sacramento before being rerouted back to Nevada.
They had plans to transform the main Reno Post Office on Vassar Street from a processing and distribution center to a local processing center only.
In a statement on Tuesday, August 27, The United States Postal Service says that the Vassar Street Post Office will continue certain local originating mail processing operations.
Officials say this decision was made possible due to the identification of enhanced efficiencies in proposed operational improvements, along with related refinements within the existing service standards.
The outlined improvements noticed to the Postal Regulatory Commission on August 22, can be viewed by clicking here.
USPS says that in addition to preserving certain local originating processing operations, the Reno Vassar facility will be undergoing changes, that are backed by the previously announced USPS investment of $13.4 million.
They say that the changes will enhance its services, without changing business mail entry, Post Office, station, and branch retail services.
Once the facility is transformed into a Local Processing Center, (LPC) it is expected to handle mailing and shipping of packages, manual letters, and flats.
The LPC is also projected to offer express services and accept bulk and permit mail, further enhancing its delivery services.
They say that although the original plan to move mail operations anticipated employee changes, with the new decision and move forward they do not anticipate any employee impacts.
ORIGINAL STORY:
The Washoe County District Attorney’s Office has filed a lawsuit against the United States Postal Service after receiving authorization from the County Commission on Tuesday.
The lawsuit seeks to stop the USPS from implementing its plan to move processing operations from Reno to Sacramento as part of a larger “national strategy” to consolidate their processing network.
Federal law requires the USPS to first go through the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC), an independent body overseeing their operations, before implementing changes that affect service on a substantially nationwide basis.
The DA's lawsuit alleges that the USPS has not done so, and it asks the U.S. District Court in Reno to halt any further action on the USPS plan and instead require them to go through the PRC’s advisory opinion process. If successful, the District Attorney’s Office, on behalf of Washoe County, will participate in the PRC process and assert its position in opposition.
For now, the county will serve the USPS, which will have a chance to respond before the parties then argue their sides in court.
