Downtown, west Olympia post offices may consolidate

By Rolf Boone | The Olympian • Published February 19, 2009

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The U.S. Postal Service is looking at merging the operations of the west Olympia and downtown Olympia post offices in a cost-cutting move.

Thousands of postal facilities nationwide face consolidation to cut costs. If the Olympia offices are consolidated, letter carriers will be transferred to the downtown branch, said Postal Service spokesman Ernie Swanson. The Postal Service then will determine whether to keep the retail service open in the Cooper Point Marketplace shopping center at 1200 Cooper Point Road or open in another location, he said.

"We wouldn't abandon the west-side area," Swanson said.

About 60 employees work at the west-side branch, with letter carriers representing a little more than half of the staff, he said. No layoffs are being considered, Swanson said.

Acting Olympia Postmaster Les Stewart added that he was not aware of a consolidation time line. Former Postmaster Ron Kusunose retired in January, and a new Olympia postmaster is expected to start in March, Stewart said.

The postal service nationally needs to cut costs, Swanson said. In fiscal 2008, the Postal Service lost $2.8 billion, and mail fell by 9 billion pieces from the previous year, he said.

"The trends so far this year are looking just as bad," he said, adding that the trend started several years ago with the growth of e-mail, online bill payment services and businesses cutting back on mail.

Customers at the 13,000-square-foot facility, next door to a vacant Linens and Things store, said Wednesday that they hoped the post office would remain unchanged.

Beth Rockwell of Olympia said she has paid for a post office box there for about 10 years and would be willing to pay more to keep it there.

Rockwell acknowledged that the economy has slowed but said it will improve in time, and homebuilding will resume in west Olympia.

"We're going to need something on the west side," Rockwell said.

She also disagrees with the idea of closing the post office and opening in another location.

"It's wasteful to close and then come back with increased startup costs," she said.

Rolf Boone covers business for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5403 or rboone@theolympian.com.