The Washoe County Commission approved a measure on Tuesday voicing its opposition to a U.S. Postal Service plan that would move the area’s mail processing operations across state lines to Sacramento.
The plan, outlined by the postal service, is part of a larger $40 billion investment meant to streamline and improve mail service nationwide.
Some of that money, $14 million, is earmarked for Reno’s local processing center, according to a recently published facility review. But it also calls for “simplified processes” to achieve “significant cost savings through operational precision and efficiency.”
To meet that goal, the postal service wants to move the region’s mail sorting duties more than 90 miles west to Sacramento.
That would mean all mail for Reno, Sparks, Carson City, and the surrounding communities would first go to California to be sorted, stamped, and then sent back over the Sierra.
Republican Commissioner Mike Clark says the proposal raises many concerns.
“It's a great distance. There's weather, there's traffic, there's wrecks, there's a lot of, a lot of reasons why I think it would diminish the quality of service.”
Postal officials say residents would not be affected by the transition of sorting responsibilities out of state and that delivery times would not change.
