The Post Office in Burlington seen on Feb. 1, 2022. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerThe United States Postal Service now plans to keep some local mail processing operations at its facility in Burlington, the organization announced on Wednesday.The development, part of a USPS operational strategy proposal, comes four months after the organization said it would delay plans to move sorting operations from facilities in White River Junction and Burlington to Connecticut, following concerns from Vermont’s two U.S. senators about the USPS’ nationwide reorganization plan.While the federal agency’s announcement suggests that Burlington operations will remain consistent, the future of operations in White River Junction remain unclear. Reached by phone on Wednesday, Stephen Doherty, a spokesperson for the USPS Northeast Region, said he did not have additional information about the status of the White River Junction Processing and Distribution Center, which serves 150 post offices in Vermont and New Hampshire.In a statement on Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said there need to be answers about what the USPS’ new plan will mean in practice, including what the organization will consider as local mail to the Burlington region.“(The USPS) must drop any threats to change operations in Burlington, as well as in White River Junction. The Postmaster General has a long way to go before he restores trust here in Vermont—he needs to prove he’ll deliver for rural communities,” Welch said.The new proposal, which aims to save the postal service $3 billion per year nationwide, is currently under review by the Postal Regulatory Commission, an independent agency that oversees the postal service. “If the regulatory process is successful, there will be no change to the location for certain local originating mail processing and cancellation operations in Burlington,” the USPS announcement stated. “In simpler terms, single piece mail that is sent from Burlington to be delivered in Burlington will continue to be processed at its current location.”Earlier this year, the USPS examined the White River Junction processing and distribution center as part of its Delivering for America plan, a 10-year effort to improve postal operations. Part of that strategy includes consolidating underused facilities into ones that serve multiple regions. In a March 19 report on its review of White River Junction, the USPS found that reorganizing the facilities’s operations would save up to $940,000 annually.In a March letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, 21 Democratic and independent U.S. senators, including Welch and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., expressed concerns that the plan would cause job losses and disrupt mail delivery performance, especially in rural areas.The letter cited the USPS’ proposed changes in Vermont, which was slated to lose all outgoing mail processing from within the state. Two months later, DeJoy said the postal service would pause its plan to consolidate up to 59 sorting facilities until at least January 2025.“Vermonters need and deserve a functioning USPS,” Welch said in a statement following the announcement in May. “I am encouraged USPS listened to the concerns we raised from our constituents, and finally paused these misguided facility reviews.”Now, following the new postal service proposal, local mail processing operations will stay in Burlington.“This strategy provides a solution that will ensure our organization can cover the cost of local originating mail processing operations in the Burlington facility,” DeJoy said in the USPS announcement. The USPS no longer anticipates any reductions in staffing at the Burlington facility; in fact, investments in package processing and shipping capacity “could potentially lead to increased plant activity and a future need for additional staffing support,” the announcement said.Changes to the Burlington facility would not take effect until after the November election, Doherty confirmed.Read the story on VTDigger here: USPS announces plan to keep some local mail processing in Burlington.