The mail processing facility in Hampden would stay open under a postal reform bill now before the Senate, Sen. Susan Collins said late Monday.
A key provision of the bill would require overnight delivery standards in some instances. Overnight delivery in Maine would be impossible without both the Hampden and Scarborough plants.
In a meeting in Washington, D.C., Monday evening, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe agreed that this language, drafted by Collins, would keep the Hampden facility open, the senator said. About 100 other postal facilities slated for closure nationwide likely would stay open if the bill becomes law.
The Senate is scheduled to vote on the reform bill Wednesday. “I anticipate the Senate will pass the bill on Wednesday,” Collins said Monday night.
In February, federal officials announced that the U.S. Postal Service Eastern Maine Processing and Distribution Facility would be consolidated, resulting in only 13 of the 183 employees being retained. The plant’s processing services would be consolidated and shifted to the Southern Maine Processing and Distribution Center in Scarborough starting May 19, employees were told at that time.
Closing the Hampden facility makes no sense, Collins said, because mail from Caribou to Madawaska would have to make a trip to Scarborough only to return to Aroostook County, a round trip of more than 600 miles.
With mail delivery taking so long, businesses and other postal customers would look for other delivery options, further worsening the Postal Service’s woes, she said.
That is the message she conveyed to Postmaster Donahoe, using a map of Maine to make the point.
“It is great news for the jobs at the plant, but equally important, it is great news for the businesses and residents of northern, eastern, central and some parts of western Maine,” Collins said of retaining the Hampden facility.
The bipartisan 21st Century Postal Service Act is authored by Sens. Collins, Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.; Tom Carper, D-Del.; and Scott Brown, R-Mass. It would also make changes to the agency’s pension system to allow the postal service to set aside less money to prefund pension obligations.
Great more welfare for Gov. workers. Awesome.
I don’t believe a word you are saying
LOL, I can see how that post could be confused as to having a load of disputable points that could be called facts.
Well, then , God loves you.
This is excellent news! The Bangor area can not handle anymore big shut downs right now. This place is quickly becoming a dead zone, impossible to find jobs and affordable housing/food. Keeping my fingers crossed for these families so they can continue to support their families!
Augusta, North, is already a DEAD ZONE wake up Kelly. Open your eyes.
Sounds like someone who’s closest experience to the north has been LL Bean…
idiocracy continues…
The insanity of taking a bill from Fort Kent, and driving it to PORTLAND, to turn around and deliver it back to Madawaska, well, that doesn’t make any sense. Not that Bangor is much better, but if the difference is one-day, vs. two or three, well, it does seem to make sense. I do think the USPS needs to do something drastic besides raise rates and cut services if it wants to compete these days.
No only insane but mail gets bogged down in Scarborough now imagine add ng to that and it will take mail 7-10 for priority mail and first class may be weeks. The savings comes with the beast but the USPS has mismanaged for years of high spending and where else can one find a job say postmaster where included in your salary is a $1m mansion to live in purchased by the USPS for them. No wonder the money ran out as it is like e very other business these days big money for upper management and in my opinion much waste is overlooked daily but these things add up and eventually here you are…Made your bed time to rethink the linens.
The insanity of paying a bill by mail….the real issue here is that most of us are now paying bills electronically. Save’s the cost of a stamp, an unnecessary drive to the post office, the bother of writing (and purchasing) paper checks. It also means that we don’t have to waste millions of dollars on unnecessary postal infrastructure.
I don’t believe a word you are saying
Bangorian sounds like the words of someone who has A. Always had a car, and had no trouble affording gas to drive around willy-nilly, B. Never known life without plastic, C. Considers themselves so important that paying their bills is a “bother.”
Must be Republican. :-)
Lots of people do not have computers. How would a certified letter be sent through a email ?
There have been some technologies to accomplish something like that. Adobe Acrobat has various “security” and deliver features built into it. But, there’s nothing like a piece of paper with a signature on it.
You must be kidding, Bangorian is anything but a Republican.
I don’t think you understand that UPS, FedEx, DHL and Streamlite could NOT function without the USPS as they piggyback on their service. Most mail that they are responsible for ends up in a USPS processing facility and delivered by the USPS especially in rural areas. I can’t believe how uniformed people are. Yes, UPS ground, 2-day and next day services (the ones that are profitable) are delivered by UPS but their economy services only go as far as the nearest Hub and then they are passed off to a USPS facility who does the final leg of the delivery.
In effect, UPS and FedEx are suckling off the taxpayer teet, in effect.
Send that same bill by ups or fedex an see what it would cost you ?
Exactly my point! The USPS is a service worth saving. :-)
LOL is not.
Repeal the law banning ups or fed ex from sending non-priority mail and you’ll find it will show up faster than the usps can deliver it and probably for less.
wrong it will cost more to use ups an fedex
Good news….needs 60 votes to pass Senate then it goes to the House
Senator Collins was part of the group of legislators that intentionally put an onerous financial burden on the post office by requiring them to 100% pre-fund their pension plan far, far in excess of what any private competitor does.
By intentionally putting the Post office at an overwhelming disadvantage against FEDEX, UPS and other private carriers these legislators were doing the bidding of their corporate sponsors at the expense of citizens everywhere. Stamps became more expensive and small Post Offices were slated for closure. All to give a business advantage to contributors to Collins and her co-conspirators .
Aren’t you delighted that Collins has taken money from YOUR pocket for her corporate masters and now tries to pretend she “saving” the Post Offices her actions put at risk to begin with?
Why was the USPS required to pre fund pensions in the first place?
Could it be that the USPS is a unique government organization, a part of the executive
branch, but unlike a typical federal employer, it can go belly up? At the time (still today)if the USPS would have folded and have been shut down, it would have stuck tthe federal government with a
bill it could not hope to pay?This would have forced the entire federal retiree health
program to go broke, that every federal workers retirement program would be worthless.That the USPS retirement fund was so screwed up there was no hope of it ever being able to fund it self.
Even today the USPS has a 46 Billion dollar unfunded program lurking on the horizon. By federal law, private companies must fund their pensions fully, and catch up over time if they fall behind.The problem is, there is absolutely no way the USPS could ever cover their obligation, non what so ever. Not even the PO’s most ardent supporters can dream up a scenario where this debt could ever be paid.
This is a dinasaur of a service, it just dosent fit in the world we live any more. Add to the fact that it was used as a bloated cash cow for Gov. employees, we are stuck with an antiquated program ,with bills we can never pay. Senator Collins bill would just delay the inevitable,and buy some votes along the way.
This is one she knows better than to get involved with its closing. Stay away and let some efficiency happen, it is possible, even with the postal service.
Really? You are far more optimistic than I.
I feel for the Hampden workers, but this looks like another example of how government digs a deeper and deeper hole for the country.
Yes. Obviously you don’t want anyone to lose their jobs, but when you have an organization that is bleeding money and needs to make drastic cuts, and then when they actually do make the proposed cuts people complain. You can’t have it both ways.
Let the post office make a profit an not half to turn that money over to the government
How ironic that a useless institution (the Senate) is using its might and muscle to save another useless institution (the USPS). If they close how will my mailbox get jammed with sales flyers everyday?
Do you know how much money the post offices make off those flyers ?? ??
Holy cow, what socialist party are you apart of? The fact that you believe that government could run post better than private industry scares me.
Yeah…of course with that line of thinking we should also contract out for the U.S. Military. Or are you ok with that SOCIALIST GOVERNMENT RUN OPERATION?
YA because it’s defense of the PEOPLE. The Post Office is just a huge LEACH.
How much do you think it would cost to use ups to send a letter from waterville to portland you tell me ?
Can someone call UPS and find out? If not, I’ll try to find out when I’m done work today.
You can’t call them an ask them they need to see the letter an they will tell you that you need to put it in a large envlope because there shipping lables will not fit the envlopes that you use now. Than you need the zip code to were its going an they need to put it on the scales
Not nearly enough it seems.
The post office makes 17.2 billion dollars a year off junk mail an that not chicken feed
And it STILL manages to over speand. Hmmm….
Privatize the Postal industry! What a waste of money. Good God. I still have trouble wrapping my head around towns like Beals Island still having their own Post Office. The free market needs to be given the chance to take over, because obviously FedEx and UPS have proved it will work.
Do you know what the free market would cost you to send a letter ? How many small towns would even get mail ? Do you know that by law they can NOT make a profit an if they do it all has to go to the government bet you did not know thsat
That is a HUGE shot at liberty then, the government needs to hop off.
Read this and take it in: Small business uses the US MAIL every day. Maine is full of small business. Maine Small Business needs timeliness!
Let them make a profit to an not half to turn that money over to the government
Why not let the USPS manage itself? There is a cadre of well-paid (I’m sure) executives and managers who ought to be able to handle things. Sure, Congress needs to be kept informed, but shouldn’t need to micromanage. If it’s necessary to micromanage, then we need a new team heading up USPS.
Everyone screams “CUT” but the moment the cut impacts them they cry “DON’T CUT.” Can’t have it both ways people.
Let the Postal Service manage itself. These politicians know nothing of Postal matters. Collins was one of the air heads that put the Postal Service in this financial disaster to begin with. In another year or two the Postal Service will be asking Congress for a TAXPAYER Bailout. Forget Hampden there is no mail volume left anyway. This is just a Very Expensive Welfare Program now, for over paid, lazy, Union Postal Workers.
Detroit got one (except Ford, who managed their money responsibly, and didn’t want it…), and the banking industry got one, so, why shouldn’t they?
Sorry, I don’t believe in Tax Payer Bailouts. To anyone. That is why the Postal Service is bankrupt and so is this country, bankrupt.
wrong
Seems we found some common ground after all!
I’m in favor of keeping it open and keeping overnight delivery alive. Otherwise, I agree that Susan Collins helped create the Post Office’s financial problems with her votes on pre-funding decades of retirement benefits.