US Postal Service Moves Las Cruces Operations To El Paso

The U.S. Postal Service is going through with its plans to move mail processing from Las Cruces to El Paso.

A postal service spokesman confirmed Friday that starting January 2012, all mail to and from Las Cruces will first have to pass through the Sun City.

Spokesman Peter Has said it all comes down to money. The U.S. Postal Service is an independent agency that solely relies on mail revenue.

That revenue has dropped 20 percent in the last four years, Has said.

“The postal service is facing a financial crisis,” he said. “We need to look at ways to consolidate our operations, and this is something we found we could do without impacting service to the folks in Las Cruces.”

Still, some Las Crucens, including Sue Bergstrom, worry delivery times will be affected.

Having used the main Las Cruces post office for four decades, Bergstrom said she remembers a time when her mail was processed elsewhere.

“You’d mail something to El Paso; then they’d have to drive it all the way back here and then deliver it,” she said.

Hass said that most mail headed out of the state or out of the country from Las Cruces already goes through the El Paso processing center because of its proximity to the international airport.

He added the roughly 20 employees who handle processing in Las Cruces would most likely be reassigned, depending on their labor union contracts.

The postal service said the main Las Cruces post office will remain open.