TULSA, Okla. — The Tulsa City Council is proposing a resolution against moving the Tulsa USPS Processing and Distribution Center to Oklahoma City.
Councilors discussed it at a City meeting and are urging the postal service to give more information to the community.
USPS said they’re reviewing whether they should move the facility and no decisions have been made on this facility yet.
Tulsa City Councilor Grant Miller brought the resolution to the council.
He said he’s worried about the impact that a potential move of the center could have on the community and is worried about bills and medication not arriving on time
“It could have a terrible economic impact on Tulsans. It could have a terrible health impact on Tulsans and obviously, we want our postal service to run efficiently and smoothly,” Miller said.
The postal service is looking into whether it should close its Tulsa Processing Center and merge sorting operations to one facility in OKC.
If that happens, letters mailed in Tulsa would be sent to OKC to be processed.
This means that mail sent in Green Country, meant for a Tulsa or Green Country destination, would take a round trip before landing in the mailbox.
“Our areas growing, the last thing we want to do right now is downgrade a processing center while we’re trying to have this economic growth in our area,” Miller said.
The Tulsa City Council resolution urges USPS to “consider local health, economic and community impacts” of the move.
It also calls for more public engagement and declares it an emergency.
Julia Weare is the Tulsa local president of The American Postal Workers Union.
She spoke at the City meeting and said she hopes USPS will give them more information.
“We just hope that they slow down this, give us a moratorium, and slow down the process. Talk to us and let us know what’s going on and show us how it’s going to make it a better situation for the people,” Weare said.
Miller said it’s important for officials to speak up.
“Having that voice just as a council saying ‘hey this not something that we want from Tulsa, Oklahoma,’ I think is a really important message,” Miller said.
The Tulsa resolution also asks for an Oklahoma federal representative to get involved.
Cherokee Nation Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr and Congressman Kevin Hern have already written letters to the postmaster general.
Chief Hoskin told FOX23 he’s worried about people living out in the country and how they might be affected.
“I think that’s the those communities that are most remote will be the most at risk if the Tulsa processing and distribution center is changed as has been proposed so that’s why we spoke out,” Hoskin said.
Congressman Kevin Hern’s letter said in part “It is difficult to believe that constituents will experience no additional delays under the plan considering the additional distance, over 200 miles roundtrip, that mail from the Tulsa area will have to travel, by being routed to Oklahoma City before returning to the Tulsa area”.
Hern also called for more transparency from USPS.
Weare said she wants more transparency too.
“We would like to have the postal service, local managers, city, and state manager come and talk to us and tell us what the plan is,” said Weare. “We are definitely still in the dark.”
This was just the first discussion of the Tulsa City Council resolution. They’re hoping to get this on the City Council meeting agenda again in the coming weeks
“What happens in Tulsa radiates throughout the whole region so it’s really important that we have a voice on this and we speak up for not only the workers, but all the residents of Tulsa to make sure that we have a healthy workforce as well as healthy citizens,” Miller said.
The initial finding document from USPS said retail and other services would not change. It also said a local postmark would be available at local post offices and delivery times should not change either.
USPS said it would tell the community when it made its final decision over the facility.
You can find USPS’s initial finding document here.
The Tulsa City Council’s proposed resolution can be found here.
Representative Hern’s full letter to the postmaster general can be found here.