Officials object to mail change

McALLEN — Routing the Rio Grande Valley’s mail through Corpus Christi, an option being considered by the U.S. Postal Service, “makes absolutely, incredibly, no common sense,” Hidalgo County Judge Ramon Garcia said Monday.

Speaking at McAllen City Hall, Garcia and Mayor Richard Cortez blasted the idea, which they said would have a wide-ranging impact on the Valley.

“We would like to see the Corpus Christi facility moved here. Combine it with our operations,” Cortez said. “Why do we have to move elsewhere? We’re one of the fastest-growing regions in all of the United States.”

Today, a typical first-class letter from Pharr to Mission passes through McAllen’s mail processing center and arrives after one or two days. If the USPS consolidates processing in Corpus Christi, that same letter would be trucked nearly 160 miles north, sorted and trucked another 160 miles back to the Rio Grande Valley.

Delivery might take an extra day, Postal Service spokesman Sam Bolen, said.

About 140 full-time employees and 20 temporary employees work at McAllen’s processing center, 620 E. Pecan Blvd., which handles mail for all ZIP codes that start with “785.” Bolen said those employees likely would be placed in other positions.

Cindy Martinez, president of the Texas Postal Workers Union, said that’s a standard USPS line that rings hollow to rank-and-file employees.

“If the only job for you is in Alaska, you have to take it if you want to work for the United States Postal Service,” Martinez said.

Essentially a stand-alone business overseen by the federal government, the Postal Service isn’t funded by taxpayer money. Stamp sales and other revenue support mail delivery to 150 million homes, businesses and post office boxes nationwide, according to the Postal Service’s website.

“The bottom line is that we have more mail processing facilities than we need to handle the diminishing volume of mail we have today,” Bolen said.

The USPS has eliminated 188 mail processing centers since 2005, according to a Postal Service fact sheet. On Sept. 15, the Postal Service announced it would study the impact of closing or consolidating an additional 252 processing centers, more than half of the remaining 487. Those locations included McAllen’s center and nine others across Texas.