Rothschild mail-processing facility to close in 2015

ROTHSCHILD – The U.S. Postal Service is following through on its 2012 announcement that its Rothschild mail-processing facility would be on the chopping block as the service cuts costs.

The Wausau Processing and Distribution Facility at 400 Creske Ave. will close in 2015 as its operations are moved to a Green Bay processing facility, according to the Postal Service. The center employed 163 workers in 2012 and handles almost all of central Wisconsin's mail.

The consolidation represents the second phase of an effort started by the Postal Service two years ago. Resumption of the consolidations will begin in early January and be completed by the fall of next year. The moves are expected to generate an additional $750 million in annual savings.

The Postal Service does not expect any jobs to be lost, Postal Service spokesman Sean Hargadon said. Hargadon said unionized employees will be reassigned to other union jobs under terms of collective-bargaining agreements. Non-union employees will be reassigned to available supervisory positions.

The Postal Service said in 2012 and 2013 that a first round of consolidation of 141 mail processing facilities was "highly successful," generating annual cost savings of $865 million and requiring no employee layoffs. Still, the Postal Service lost $1.9 billion in the first quarter of 2014, prompting more calls by administrators for legislative action to address the red ink.

Rothschild village president George Peterson said the effects of the closing will spread beyond the borders of Rothschild.

"The people who will be displaced are not all Rothschild residents, it's a Wausau area thing," Peterson said. "The Wausau area is going to be affected. It's not going to have a tremendous impact on the village of Rothschild alone."

Peterson said the village won't take a hit in property tax income because the facility already is tax-exempt.

"And the federal government has a history, especially the post office, when they close something they hang on to it forever," Peterson said. "If they were to sell it off to a private party we would benefit, but I doubt that would happen in our lifetime."

The Rothschild closure is one of four planned for Wisconsin.

The Eau Claire and La Crosse facilities will have their operations moved to St. Paul, Minn. Madison's operations will be shifted to Milwaukee.

The Rothschild center processes mail from all zip codes starting with 544, Hargadon said. He said the changes will not affect the mail-delivery process, though in 2012 the Postal Service said closing the facility could add a day to delivery times.

Over the past three years, the Postal Service has recorded financial losses of $26 billion and it continues to lose money as mail volume and revenue decline, wage and benefit costs go up, and the service is forced to adapt to legislative mandates.

The Postal Service is expected to release more details about the consolidation in coming weeks.

Bob Dohr can be reached at 715-845-0660. Find him on Twitter as @BobDohr1.