USPS must be allowed to change with the times

First class mail service is likely to take a day or two longer, and there are no guarantees for the future, but the threat of having McCook's mail shipped out of state before being sorted is over, for now.

The North Platte processing center was on the list of possible cuts before the U.S. Postal Service's announcement Thursday that Norfolk, Grand Island and Alliance would have their centers closed, instead.

The closings will eliminate 104 postal jobs in the state, but 72 will be added in Omaha -- and one in North Platte -- to pick up the slack.

Clearly, something had to be done. The Postal Service predicts it will lose a record $14.1 billion this year and plans to cut 220,000 jobs, but critics point to a congressional mandate that the service prefund retirement and retiree health costs as a major part of the problem.

The processing centers would have been closed sooner, but the USPS agreed to give Congress until May 15 to come up with other options.

We're not optimistic that will happen.

Sen. Ben Nelson and 26 colleagues sent a letter to the top-ranking Democrats and Republicans overseeing postal reform, offering suggestions and calling for a blue ribbon commission of postmasters, experts in the mailing industry, business leaders and labor leaders "to recommend a new business model for the USPS to make it profitable over the long term."

Yes, the postal service is a victim of changing technologies -- not many of us opt to spend 45 cents to deliver a message in three days that could be delivered instantaneously via e-mail or cell phone text for free or a fraction of first-class postage.

But the postal service is also a victim of suffocating obligations that prevent it from even attempting to compete with other means of delivery.

There will always be a need for fast, physical delivery of communications and products. The USPS must be allowed to make the changes necessary to allow it to continue operation.