A crowd holds up signs during a public input meeting Tuesday, Feb. 6, on a proposed plan to modernize the U.S. Postal Service and the Quad Cities Processing and Distribution Center at 7700 68th St., Milan. The meeting was held at the Camden Centre in Milan. CREDIT DAVE THOMPSON
MILAN – A plan to modernize and change the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) distribution center in Milan faced a tough, critical crowd on Tuesday, Feb. 6, during a public input meeting. That session, held at the Camden Centre here, attracted more than 50 people to hear plans on how a $40 billion nationwide USPS upgrade […]
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MILAN – A plan to modernize and change the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) distribution center in Milan faced a tough, critical crowd on Tuesday, Feb. 6, during a public input meeting.That session, held at the Camden Centre here, attracted more than 50 people to hear plans on how a $40 billion nationwide USPS upgrade plan will impact the Quad Cities Processing and Distribution Center at 7700 68th St., Milan. (Go here to see more details of that 10-year document, which is called the Delivering for America plan. Public comments on the local portion of the plan may be submitted here.)
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Murielle Weeks, of Moline, a USPS worker, comments on proposed changes to the USPS during a public meeting Tuesday, Feb. 6. CREDIT DAVE THOMPSON
Frank Veal, USPS Westshore division director, outlines several of the proposed changes to postal facilities during the Feb. 6 meeting at Milan’s Camden Centre. CREDIT DAVE THOMPSON
The United States Postal Service (USPS) has announced plans to retain certain local mail processing operations at the Quad Cities postal facility in Milan, according to a news release from the Postal Service. CREDIT DAVE THOMPSON
A crowd holds up signs during a public input meeting Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2024, on a proposed plan to modernize the U.S. Postal Service and the Quad Cities Processing and Distribution Center at 7700 68th St., Milan. The meeting was held at the Camden Centre in Milan. The United States Postal Service (USPS) has announced plans to retain certain local mail processing operations at the Quad Cities postal facility in Milan, according to a news release from the Postal Service. CREDIT DAVE THOMPSON
More than 50 people attended the meeting.
Those national plans are needed to improve service, upgrade facilities and help employee morale, according to the USPS. In fact, information from the postal service states that the Delivering for America plan is needed to transform the postal service “from an organization in financial and operational crisis to one that is self-sustaining and high performing.”
$6 million upgrade planned
If eventually approved, about $6 million in upgrades will be made to the Milan facility. Frank Veal, USPS Westshore division director, outlined several of the proposed changes to the Milan facility during Tuesday’s public input meeting. He told the crowd the plan will improve mail and package flow through the region, the Milan facility will remain open and a key part of the postal system, and there will not be any layoffs of USPS career employees.Some of the highlights of the plan for the Milan facility include:
Adding state-of-the art mail sorting machinery.
Improving lighting, repairing flooring, dock areas and employee common areas, and upgrading machinery to improve mail flow.
The retail and business delivery time of mail will not change.
The improvements to the Milan facility will save the USPS up to $1.3 million a year.
There will be no job layoffs of career USPS employees.
The Milan facility will be reclassified and become a local processing center (LPC).
That change means outgoing mail and package operations – and therefore much of the mail from the Quad Cities – will go to the Des Moines Processing and Distribution Center. Information from the USPS stated that mail delivery will not be delayed under this new system. Here is how the USPS said the new system will work: A letter mailed on Monday in the QC and destined to another QC address will be collected at a post office, taken to the Milan facility and transported to Des Moines that evening.
QC mail may be rerouted
The Des Moines facility then processes the letter overnight on Monday or early Tuesday morning. That letter is then transported back to the QC on Tuesday. It is sorted at the Milan facility and taken to local post offices on Wednesday morning for delivery on Wednesday. The USPS information said that the new system of sending QC mail to Des Moines will “make our process more efficient and dependable” because most of the mail coming out of the QC will go to other regions of the country, and Des Moines will be a better fit to process and send along that mail.The plan to send local mail to Des Moines and return it to the region spurred many of the critical comments at the meeting, which largely centered on gathering public comments and questions about the modernization plans.Moline Mayor Sangeetha Rayapati told the USPS officials she is very concerned about the plans. First, she fears there will be delays in election officials getting mailed election ballots if those forms initially go to Des Moines and have to be returned to the Quad Cities. Also, in an era when many rely on the postal service to get their medical prescriptions, she said such a system could delay the delivery of that needed medicine.“There is something misguided in this plan,” Ms. Rayapati said during the public comment session of the meeting.In all, the session featured at least 15 speakers. All were critical of the proposed changes to the Milan facility or of local USPS mail delivery service. Several speakers said that service has been getting worse in recent years and they fear that sending local mail to Des Moines would continue the slowdown in mail delivery.
Service complaints
“I ain’t getting my mail, man,” said Bob Evans, a retired postal worker, who was one of the first to comment at the meeting.He added that one of his relatives received her mail only four times during a recent two-week period. Mr. Evans said he was at the meeting to support the other postal workers and point out what he sees as safety concerns for workers. He added that in some cases, those workers have been forced to deliver mail in the dark, sometimes at 7 p.m. or later in order to get their work done.A current USPS worker, Murielle Weeks of Moline, was critical of the USPS plans, especially claims that career postal workers would not lose their jobs under the plan. She said some USPS workers will be given the unrealistic option of moving across the country in order to keep their jobs.“They’re spending $40 billion to make all this happen. … They are downplaying relocating people. People will have to move hundreds of miles away or quit their jobs,” she added.Other current and retired USPS workers made similar arguments against plans to transform the Milan postal facility. For instance, one worker said USPS employees are doing a great job in Milan and take great pride in their work. It would be wrong to reclassify the local facility and send more mail to Des Moines because he claims that facility would not be able to handle the extra workload.Most of the comments Tuesday came from current and former USPS employees, who opposed the plan.
USPS workers speak out
In fact, during the meeting, at least 20 people – many of them USPS workers – stood in the back of the meeting room, cheering the comments from people critical of USPS plans and holding up protest signs. Some signs stated: “Stop the 10-year plan,” “Keep jobs local,” “We the people deserve better,” and “Stop delaying our mail.”Many of the workers also were upset with how the meeting was being presented. Some pointed out that while many of the speakers presented Mr. Veal with questions, he didn’t provide many answers. He often told the speakers asking questions that he would look into the matter and get back to them. (During the first portion of the meeting when Mr. Veal was outlining the USPS upgrade plans, someone in the back of the room shouted “You don’t care about the employees.”)Other people pointed out what they believed to be mistakes by USPS officials. During the opening minutes of the meeting, USPS officials showed two QR codes that could be used by the public to make comments on the plans and review the Quad Cities’ portions of the plans. Neither of those codes appeared to be operational during the meeting. USPS officials said they would get the codes updated and fixed.Doug House, the former Rock Island County Democratic Party chair and former president of the Democratic County Chairs’ Association, told the USPS officials that it was a mistake to hold such an important meeting at noon on a Tuesday. He said the meeting should have been held at night so people who work during the day would have a chance to attend and make comments on the plans.Members of the public may submit written comments here through Wednesday, Feb. 21. That public input will be considered prior to a final decision, the USPS officials said. It’s not known when the proposed changes to the Milan facility might take place.
