“This moratorium is a win for Ohio consumers, Ohio business and Ohio workers,” Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said in a prepared statement.
“Though the Postal Service faces serious challenges, this will provide time to reach a solution that will strengthen the USPS, instead of crippling it,” Brown said.
The agreement temporarily spares the Dayton mail processing center at East Fifth Street that employs 400 and several branches under review — two post offices at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and others in North Dayton and at the Veterans Affairs Center. The service previously decided not to close post offices in Trotwood and the Westown Shopping Center on West Third Street.
The proposed closings are part of a plan to shutter 252 processing centers and 3,700 post offices as the agency reels from reduced mail volume in the digital age.
The Postal Service is expected to default Friday on a $5.5 billion payment to the Treasury and is forecast to lose a record $14.1 billion next year. It had planned to begin closing offices next year.
The service doesn’t receive tax money but is subject to congressional control. Separate bills that have passed House and Senate committees would give it more authority to reduce delivery to five days a week, raise stamp prices and reduce health coverage.
This report contains information from the Associated Press.
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