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STAMFORD, Conn. The mail processing and distribution center in Stamford will be closing, the U.S. Postal Service announced in a statement. The services will move to the Westchester Processing and Distribution Center in New York state.
The Stamford processing plant covers ZIP codes beginning with 067 through 069, which is from Greenwich inland to Danbury to the north and east to Bridgeport, said Christine Dugas, a media representative for the postal service.
Consolidating operations is necessary if the Postal Service is to remain viable to provide mail service to the nation, Megan Brennan, chief operating officer for the U.S. Postal Service, said in the statement.
The biggest possible impact of the move would be that mail delivered overnight in the past may take two days to reach its destination, Dugas said.
The postal service conducted a study at the end of 2011 and concluded it will be best to shut down the Stamford Processing and Distribution Center, Dugas said. Since 2006, the postal service has seen a 25 percent decrease in first class mail volume, the statement said.
No official end date has been given, as the Postal Service waits for Congress to possibly enact legislation that would change existing service standards, Dugas said. May 15 is the earliest operations can cease due to contractual obligations and to give Congress enough time, she said.
The closure in Stamford will affect 349 postal service employees, however, it doesn't necessarily mean all of those people will lose their jobs. Dugas said some people will retire or move into other positions before any layoffs.
The Postal Service also announced that first class mail service at the Southern Connecticut Processing and Distribution Center in Wallingford will move to Hartford and parcels and flats will go to the plant in Springfield, Mass.
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