Politics & Government
Goodbye, Olympic Drive Post Office
The Athens, Ga., plant is one of 250 the U.S. Postal Service plans to close over the next year.
The United States Postal Service has announced that it will close nearly 250 post offices in the near future as part of a multi-billion dollar cost-cutting plan, including in Athens.
“Given that the Postal Service is currently projecting a $14 billion net loss in FY2012, and continuing annual losses of this magnitude, we simply cannot justify maintaining our current mail processing footprint,” Patrick R. Donahoe, Postmaster General and Chief Executive Officer of the Postal Service, said in a news release.
The Olympic Drive facility is scheduled to close, but the exact date has not been determined. The process will happen in phases to avoid chaos during the busy election and holiday seasons, with 48 centers closing this August and 90 closing next January and February.
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Much of the Olympic Drive postal activity will now be routed to a processing center located in Duluth. Many postal workers will be transferred to nearby facilities, and it is unclear how many will lose their jobs.
When fully implemented in late 2014, the Postal Service expects its network consolidations to generate approximately $2.1 billion in annual cost reductions, and lead to total workforce reduction up to 28,000 employees.
