By Ray Hagar, Nevada Newsmakers
Editor's note: This is the second in a series of policy interviews with members of Nevada's federal delegation in Washington D.C.
Although the U.S. Postal Service gave notice last month it was abandoning plans to reroute Reno-area mail processing to Sacramento, the battle with the Postal Service is not over, Nevada's 2nd U.S. House District Rep. Mark Amodei said on Nevada Newsmakers recently.
The Postal Service plan, announced in late August, allows processing of single-piece mail to continue in Reno. But as the Christmas season approaches, the question of processing of packages and parcels in Reno remains unsettled, Amodei told host Sam Shad.
"So if anybody thinks that it's like, mission accomplished, that we're declaring victory and moving on ... we're still in the trenches, slugging away, making sure we know everything there is to know about what's going on at that Reno sorting center, as well as post offices throughout Nevada," said Amodei, a Republican from Carson City.
Amodei has requested a meeting with postal officials to clarify what its announcement last month really means. He's concerned that postal workers' jobs could still be lost, despite assurances from postal officials that there would be no jobs lost in Reno.
Shad, speaking about a conversation he had with Jamila Bush, president of the Reno American Postal Workers Union, said Bush is concerned Reno could lose about 50 workers if the parcel and package business is lost.
"Clearly, the announcement was a step in the right direction for things like letters and ballots and stuff like that, because those were big concerns," Amodei said. "However, I would also point out that the announcement said that no jobs in Reno would be lost, which is why we've asked for the briefing again to go, OK, so now where does that leave us?
Veteran Nevadan Journalist Ray Hagar is known for fair and tough reporting and invigorating commentary."We will (also) be talking with them about packages and stuff like that to make sure the modernization stuff -- to keep that (Reno) sorting center competitive -- is still going through.
"Obviously, we'll be talking about jobs," Amodei added. "And, we'll be talking about packages to see what 'Your stuff isn't going to California anymore' means."
Amodei also asked Reno's postal-union president to keep him informed on any developments in postal service issues in Northern Nevada.
He told Shad: "The next time she hangs up the phone with you, (ask her) to please feel free to call my office so that we're on the same sheet of music."
The USPS still plans to transform its Vassar Street facility in Reno from a processing and distribution center – which sorts mail before sending it to outgoing destinations – into a local processing center, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported last month.
A local processing center handles distribution of mail to local addresses as well as typical customer services such as mailing packages and accepting bulk and permit mail, according to the RGJ.
However, Amodei, who was first elected to Congress in a special election in 2011, said the USPS can be a slippery agency to track.
"As we've learned over the years, the Postal Service is a constant oversight challenge, even to the point where we've got a couple of new things now where apparently, they're not watering the lawns in in some of the post offices around (Northern Nevada). So there's always plenty of postal business to do."
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