US Postal Service Will Hit Close To Home

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The U.S. Postal Service says it has to cut $3 Billion to stay afloat; and impact of those cuts will be felt by Americans all over the country -- including right here in Western Pennsylvania.

Nearly 130 Post Offices in the Pittsburgh area were being studied as possible casualties in the sweeping cuts that would close half of the mail processing center across the country and slow everything from check payments to mail-order prescriptions.

While we're still waiting for official word on exactly which Post Offices will close, the cost-cutting efforts will affect delivery of the mail. The first class stamped letter, which was virtually guaranteed to arrive the next day, could soon take two or more days to arrive at its final destination.

In an age where more and more people communicate by email rather than postal mail, the cutbacks were inevitable; but some of the cuts raised eyebrows among loyal postal customers.

"I think it's wrong because most people believe in mail -- at least older people do -- and you depend on it," Ward Wiegel of the South Side told KDKA-TV.

Improving the bottom line could force more people to postal alternatives; still, as local Postal spokesman Tad Kelly explained when cuts were proposed earlier this year, something has to give.

"Twenty-percent of our mail volumes we have seen go away over the last four years, $8.5 Billion we lost in revenues last year," Kelly told KDKA in July. "We've got to right-size the operation."

Some of these changes are expected to take effect in the spring.

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