Today is the busiest day for mailing holiday packages at the post office, and the increasing number of people ordering Christmas presents online means that the crush is greater than ever for the U.S. Postal Service.
“The parcel service is really through the roof,” Scott White, acting manager of the downtown Wichita post office, said Thursday. “You can tell the difference even from last year.”
It’s a piece of good news for the Postal Service, which also today is expected to default on a $5.5 billion payment to the Treasury and is forecast to lose a record $14.1 billion next year. The cash-strapped agency has proposed closing 3,700 post offices, though that plan is on hold until May while Congress tries to work out some relief.
In Wichita, a fire at the Munger post office at 13th and Oliver in June gave the Postal Service an opportunity to close that station. And that option was considered, said Wichita postmaster Evie Tan-Todd. But the size of the office – it’s a midsize one for Wichita – and an outpouring of support for it weighed in favor of keeping it open. Now work that had been delayed because the contractor had underestimated some elements of it has begun, and the post office could reopen by March or April, Tan-Todd said.
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