AKRON, Ohio — Mayor Dan Horrigan wants the United States Postal Service to immediately begin planning to reopen the Akron mail processing center it shuttered in 2015, despite outcry from the city.

What You Need To Know

  • The USPS closure in 2015 left Ohio with only two processing facilities in Cleveland and Columbus

  • USPS is already busy during the holidays but with more people mailing gifts and cards because of the pandemic prescriptions and vital paperwork are delayed

  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee on immunization practices recommended postal workers be included in the next group to receive the COVID-19 vaccine

Processing centers were closed in five other cities as well, leaving Ohio to make-do with two facilities bookending the state in Cleveland and Columbus.  

“No citizen of Akron should worry about whether their rent or utility check will be received, whether their prescription or benefit check will arrive, or whether their vote will be counted because of decisions made in Washington, D.C.,” Horrigan said in a statement. “Our senior citizens, who are especially vulnerable right now — both to health risks and also to social and economic isolation — will suffer the most if nothing is done.

Money Congress allocated for the USPS from the recent $10 billion stimulus bill should go toward reopening the Akron center, because the pandemic is causing Americans to increasingly turn to mail delivery for everything from food to prescriptions.

“And the federal government owes it to the American people to use those funds to improve services —plain and simple,” he said.

Mail delivery has been slow and, at times, nonexistent since late summer when USPS officials began dismantling and removing sorting machines from critical centers around the country, ahead of the General Election in November. 

At the time, President Donald Trump was issuing unfounded warnings that voting by mail would result in fraudulent election results, while opposing funding for the financially strapped postal service.

Now, as the latest wave of the virus bears down, citizenry around the globe, except essential workers, has been strongly advised to stay home, generating more mail for the USPS in the already busy holiday season.

Further challenges have come as the virus moves through the postal service’s own ranks, with the Office of the Inspector General reporting more than 7,000 COVID-19 positive cases by late July.

Relief could be in sight this week, however, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee on immunization practices recommended postal workers be included in the next group to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, along with those over 75 years old, and people 16-64 with high-risk medical conditions.

In the meantime, Horrigan wants planning to begin now on reopening the USPS facility, a request he says he’s also been made to members of Ohio’s congressional delegation.

“By delivering everything from vital prescriptions and essential goods to absentee ballots and letters to ill or isolated relatives, the USPS is a critical, life-supporting link between citizens and their government, commerce and loved ones,” he said. 

Such a facility would not only ensure mail is sent and received efficiently, it would create hundreds of jobs, he said.