The United States Postal Service (USPS) is having a public meeting on Nov. 29th at 2pm at the Wenatchee Public Library to outline proposed changes to mail processing for cities and towns with zip codes beginning with "988".

The proposal is the result of a Mail Processing Facility Review, an evaluation of the mail processing operation in Wenatchee.  USPS is proposing to move some of the mail processing operations done in Wenatchee to the Spokane Processing and Distribution Center.

The review is underway at six facilities like Wenatchee as part of the Delivering For America plan from the Postmaster General.

The Postal Service plans a modernization of the Wenatchee Processing and Distribution center and repositioning as a local processing center.

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Ryan Harris, President of the Washington American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO and the Wenatchee Local union rep says the proposed changes will lead to delays in delivery given the additional transit times necessary.

Harris says the proposal will mean all outgoing mail from 988 zip codes will be consolidated into containers and then trucked to Spokane to be processed the next day.  The mail will then be trucked back to Wenatchee.

Currently, Harris says mail at the Wenatchee processing center is cancelled or postmarked and then sorted into the order it is to be delivered on a specific letter carrier's route.  Under the proposal, the cancellation, and part of the sorting will be done in Spokane and then completed in Spokane before it is transported back to Wenatchee for additional route sorting.

Written comments can be submitted at surveymonkey.com/r/mpfr-wenatchee-wa  USPS will be accepting comments through December 14, 2023.

The Wenatchee processing facility was one of 250 identified for closure in 2012, but the Postal Service delayed that plan. In 2020, Harris says the USPS shut down letter sorting machines and mail was sent to Spokane but after one day, that decision was reversed when the facility could not process the extra mail and packages in a timely manner.

The public meeting is Wednesday, Nov. 29th at 2pm in the Wenatchee Public Library Auditorium located at 310 Douglas Street in Wenatchee.