Date: ____________________________

The Honorable Mitch McConnell

U. S. Senator

241 East Main Street, #102
Bowling Green, Kentucky 42101

Dear Senator McConnell:

As part of a misguided and alleged cost-cutting scheme, the Postal Service has announced proposed plans to move mail sorting operations currently performed at the Bowling Green Processing and Distribution Facility at 5300 Scottsville Road, to the Nashville Processing and Distribution Center in Nashville, TN, approximately 70 miles away.

According to an article in the Park City Daily News, “It will not impact local mail deliveries.”  U. S. Postal Service spokesman David Walton stated, “That’s one of our commitments.  It shouldn’t affect mail service at all.”

Despite USPS assurances to the contrary, this “consolidation” will have a negative effect on service in the Bowling Green and the surrounding area.  Mail will be collected earlier in the day, forcing these communities to have all of their mail at the Postal Service much earlier in the day.  Mail will also arrive later in the day-possibly after dark.  Our elderly community could be drastically affected by late arrivals of their Social Security and Retirement checks, and delayed medication deliveries. Business mail will be delayed, bills may not get paid on time, and everything delivered by mail will take longer to arrive, potentially 2-4 more days than when this mail is processed in Bowling Green. 

Sending our mail to Nashville for processing will also hurt local businesses and will drain more jobs from Bowling Green.  This will have a detrimental affect to our tax base and businesses in Warren County, South Central Kentucky and Western Kentucky, where million of dollars are spent yearly by our families.

We process mail for all the surrounding counties to the west, including Cadiz and Fort Campbell, as far north as Owensboro and as far east as Edmonton and Tompkinsville.  If this effort is not stopped, we could very well see all Bowling Green and the surrounding counties mail processed in another state.  This would be detrimental to our local communities and businesses.

The Postal Service claims the move will “improve efficiency”, but it has not provided any real evidence that the plan would save money or that the current level of service would be maintained.

I hope we can count on you to demand a full, public accounting of how the consolidation plan would affect my mail and local economy, and to oppose any consolidation plans that would reduce service and result in job losses in my community.

Thank you for your consideration.

                                                                                    Sincerely,

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