Clay insists postal sorting should stay in Gary

• Reprints

Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

GARY — Mayor Rudy Clay worked for a post office on Chicago’s south side many years ago.

That was long before e-mail, Twitter, social networking and other electronic communication technology decimated revenue for the U.S. Postal Service, which is federally regulated without being federally subsidized.

“We are in a crisis as a business,” said Karin Nowatzke, plant manager of the Distribution and Processing center at 1499 Martin Luther King Dr., which is part of a feasibility study to determine if Gary sorting operations can be moved to South Bend. 

“The postal service is bleeding, it’s hemorrhaging.”

Last year, the USPS delivered 26 billion fewer pieces of mail. That added up to a loss of about $5 billion in revenue, she said.

The study will determine if the cancellation process in the Gary facility, which covers municipalities in zip codes beginning with 463 and 464, an area stretching from Hammond well into LaPorte county, should be consolidated to South Bend.

Clay, who’s facing eight opponents in the May 3 Democratic primary, toured the cavernous center Monday.

He insisted the cancellation process should remain in Gary, regardless of the results of an ongoing feasibility study.

“It would be utterly very difficult for me to change my position. We don’t want to see anything move out of Gary,” Clay said.

If the postal service decides to transfer the limited cancellation process, which includes about 15 afternoon shift jobs, officials will hold public meetings to discuss the changes, said USPS spokeswoman Kim Yates.

Most mail taken to South Bend for processing would still reach its destinations in Northwest Indiana by the next day, officials said.

The move would affect only first class mail dropped into collection boxes, Nowatzke said.

Priority mail, which carries a higher price, is still doing very well in the area and throughout the country, she said.

Nowatzke said the postal service unions have “no layoff” clauses in their contract, so workers would be moved to other jobs based on their seniority.

“I know the unions are saying something different,” Clay responded. “But, whether it’s one or 15 jobs, I don’t want to see anything happen to anyone here.”