Gail Handley and Connie AU work the counter at Mansfield Post Office main office on Diamond Street.(Photo: Jason J. Molyet/News Journal)
Cutbacks have been a fact of life for U.S. Postal Service operations across north central Ohio for several years now. Mail-processing operations left Mansfield for Cleveland in 2012. And small, rural post offices in Crawford County villages like Chatfield have seen their office hours drastically cut.
Some mail delivery has suffered as a result, but much of it hasn’t. Same-city mail — originating in and terminating in Mansfield, for instance, or Bucyrus — still arrives overnight. That’s now about to end, as phase two of what the USPS calls its nationwide network rationalization takes effect in January.
As it continues to grapple with a precipitous decline in mail volume, the Postal Service will close 82 more mail-processing centers across the country early next year, the latest in a series of such moves. More mail delivery across north central Ohio will now start to suffer as a result.
“Mail will no longer have that overnight commitment. Mansfield to Mansfield, for instance, could now take two to three days. Newspapers, which had a two-day commitment, could take as many as eight days, parcels will be 10 days max,” Michael Rellinger, northwest Ohio branch president of National Postal Mail Handlers Union Local 304, said.
“Mail will now have to sit a day or two until they’re caught up.”
Mansfield’s mail will continue to go through Cleveland, but now Akron’s will as well, increasing the volume at that processing facility. Dayton’s mail have to travel to Columbus. Mail that used to end up at the center in Toledo will now head to either Columbus, or Detroit or Pontiac in Michigan.