With Wappingers, Fishkill, Newburgh, Cornwall, Montgomery, New Paltz, Pine Bush, Walden and other nearby Post Offices closing, the USPS says in a presentation that they have factored in parking, if there is enough parking for those delivery trucks. In this new USPS commercial, it looks like the original post office truck is being directed by the airline-looking traffic controller person.
The traffic on the Newburgh/Beacon Bridge can be thick. One accident, bless the people involved in the crash, can stop traffic for 2 hours at times, backing up all the way to Fishkill’s Route 9.
City of Beacon’s City Administrator Chris White Confirms Building Not Closing
Speculation has been so strong by the public that the Beacon building would close (with the burning hot real estate market going on in Beacon, and the loss of several iconic businesses to new development, this served as a strong foundation for this rumor) WRRV and ALBB first published that the building would close. WRRV was quick to update their initial article, and included this statement: “From the USPS: ‘As we move forward with this initiative, customers will see no changes to their local post office retail operations. No post offices will be closed and PO Box service will not be changed.’"
ALBB emailed Beacon’s City Administrator Chris White days ago to inquire about a possible building closure, and he did not reply. Instead, he updated the community in the final moments of the weekly City Council meeting, as he seems to like breaking his own news on his own time. Special thanks to Councilperson Justice McCray who commented via Instagram that the City of Beacon made an update in the final moments of the meeting.
From the City Administrator’s update, just seconds before the meeting adjourned:
“I have a 2-minute update on the Post Office. Your emails are blowing up. A week to two weeks ago, word spread in Beacon that we were going to loose carriers, and that was a preface to closing down the post office. When we got word of that, we did reach out to Congressman Pat Ryan's office in Kingston. They were doing a call today (Monday) with their Washington Office to ascertain the details on it.
“I did reach out to both the Postmaster who is currently on a different assignment - the Beacon Postmaster is in Hopewell. I did speak to the interim Postmaster. Neither of them believes that closure is at all considered. They thought that was highly unlikely. It had not being discussed.
“What is being discussed is these S&DC centers. The Sorting and Delivery. The carriers that now report for the 13 routes that are done in the 12508 area, would instead report to Newburgh. There were 15 or 16 communities that were going to be moved there. When I talked to the Postmaster, she said that all of the retail functions of the post office are going to remain the same. In fact, there was a similar consolidation of the sorting and delivery a couple of years ago in Eastern Dutchess that Hopewell was part of, and they still remain open.
“We are waiting for a final call back from Congressman Ryan's office. I left messages with the Vice President Of the American Postal Workers Union who I worked with years ago fighting other closures in Sullivan County. It doesn't seem that there is any real threat to close the post office. It would change where the carriers report, but the function day to day, your delivery, your ability to go to the post office, to have a box, to purchase postage, and other items there, would not change."
Mayor Lee Kyriacou clarified: "None of the customer-facing elements are involved in any consideration for change?"
City Administrator Chris responded: "That's correct. And when I said 'Well, do you think this could be a step toward closing?' They said 'No, this is one of our busiest post offices.' If somebody was going to close post offices, this would not be top of the list to close. When we fought this years ago, when I worked in a Congressional office, we were closing very small post offices in towns you would not recognize the names of. Where they had only a few people going in and a few boxes left. And even there we were able to stop it."
From this roll-out, Steve told ALBB that he is waiting to see how more details are addressed, like how a package that cannot be delivered will be handled. Will Beaconites need to drive over the bridge and back to retrieve it?
Editor’s Note: If you are a postal employee in the Mid Hudson region who works in the building for window service and has been impacted by this - where you did see change - please tell ALBB about it. If you were told by a superior that the building may close in the future, please contact us to tell us your source.
The Change From Post Offices To Fulfillment Centers
Suddenly news in the post office is moving quickly. Steve at SaveThePostOffice.com has been following this closely, and researched the large processing centers being built by the USPS by reviewing lists of processing centers that were released to postal unions. He has not been able to come up with a conclusion as to how they will work. However, he did notice that two of the large processing centers were located in North Carolina. “It’s noteworthy that two of the four new leased facilities will be in North Carolina, the Postmaster General’s adopted home state. DeJoy built his fortune as CEO of New Breed Logistics, based in High Point; he has a home in nearby Greensboro; and his chief logistics officer and executive VP is also a former New Breed executive. They have a lot of experience doing logistics projects in North Carolina, but why develop two new leased RPDCs in the same state, just 110 miles apart?”
Steve has also been tracking who has already been fired at the local post offices. In an article published on April 3, 2023, he followed which “spoke” post offices have been impacted.
Steve reported on April 1, 2023: “According to the impact statements the Postal Service is required to provide the APWU when it excesses employees, at least 40 clerk positions are being excessed at about 30 post offices, some of which aren’t scheduled to lose their carriers until September. [Update, 4/2/2023: The Postal Service has dialed back the S&DC plan yet again. The number of spoke offices sending carriers to the Mid Hudson S&DC is now 7 instead of 16, and the total number of excessed positions is now 8 instead of 23.]”
This is just the beginning of what is sure to be several news reports about this.
What will happen to the Elf in the Beacon Post Office who receives the letters to Santa?
What will happen to the Elf in the Beacon Post Office who receives the letters to Santa, and answers each one herself, with candy canes taped onto the envelope? Which magically make it through the sorting machines without getting crushed, or needing a stamp?
