CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. — After a new proposal from the United States Postal Service, Western New Yorkers could see their mail travel 150 miles just to be delivered.
It’s a concern that brought a crowd of more than 100 people to a public meeting in Cheektowaga Tuesday night, as residents aimed to push back on USPS’s plans to alter operations at the William Street distribution center.
The postal service announced last month that it is considering transferring some of its William Street operations to Rochester as a part of a $40 billion nationwide investment aimed at modernizing mail delivery.
This change would mean mail that is dropped off at a post office locally in Buffalo would have to travel to Rochester before returning to Buffalo and the suburbs for delivery.
“What we are discussing today is taking the service out of our public postal service,” one resident said at the meeting Tuesday.
USPS claims residents will not notice a difference in mail delivery times and that these changes would save them $3 million annually in the region.
“These changes will make our process more efficient and dependable,” said USPS Executive Plant Manager Rhonda Benton. “We do not anticipate any changes to residential and business time of delivery. The mail will continue to be processed and delivered in two days.”
However, residents didn’t buy it Tuesday night and demanded the distribution facility and the jobs within it stay in Buffalo.
“These are human beings who work and punch the clock just like the rest of us,” one resident said.
“This plan to move Buffalo's processing and distribution center is dead on arrival in Western New York,” another resident added.
The plan is not final and USPS will be accepting further public comments online through March 13 at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/mpfr-buffalo-ny.
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