Southpinellas: City out of sorts over postal cut

Whether it's a letter to a friend across town or to Grandma in Ohio, first-class mail will go straight to Tampa, the Postal Service announced this week after a yearlong study.

The service will merge St. Petersburg mail-sorting operations with Tampa's, eliminating 19 jobs and saving about $4.6-million annually, said Gary Sawtelle, a spokesman for the Postal Service's Suncoast District.

Sawtelle said the agency is "working on a proposal" to include St. Petersburg on the postmark in Tampa.

In addition, a special collection box will be provided at the main post office on First Avenue N near 34th Street for people wanting a city postmark.

On Thursday, postal officials will discuss the changes with Mayor Rick Baker, who remains insistent that the city can keep its postmark. U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young, however, admitted he is disappointed.

Sawtelle said 19 employees at the mail processing center at the main post office will be reassigned.

Mike Sullivan, president of the local American Postal Workers Union, said the Postal Service should provide more details about its anticipated savings. "Where are they getting their figures?" he asked.

Last year when the proposal became known, many residents balked at the idea of losing the city's postmark. About 180 people attended a community meeting to complain.

"I think it's better to keep our seal on the letters, " said James Brown, 44, of St. Petersburg as he dropped off some letters at the open air station downtown Monday. "It's big enough to warrant it."

But as William Cowherd, 42, of St. Petersburg dropped off mail Monday, he said: "All I care about is that my mail gets to where it's going."

If history is a predictor, the city could face an uphill battle to keep a postmark. Of all the cities in the postal service's Suncoast District, from Brooksville to the Everglades, only five postmarks currently exist: Tampa, St. Petersburg, Lakeland, Fort Myers and Manasota, a hybrid created to placate Manatee County residents whose mail is processed in Sarasota.

"St. Petersburg is one of the significant cities in the country, " Baker said. "We will object to the loss of our postmark."

Share your thoughts on this story

Read our guidelines for comments

Comments on this article

by Sally	05/08/07 07:24 AM
Want to save 4.6M? Get rid of upper management and their huge salaries for doing nothing but thinking up ways to cut service to the average person. USPS would save more the 4.6 for sure!!!

by Arnold	05/04/07 09:58 PM
Loss of a postmark is meaningless these days. Give it up!

by Bud	05/02/07 12:16 AM
Check the salaries and retirement packages of the 12 board of directors. more savings??

by Bud	05/02/07 12:11 AM
Each Post Office should have a local mail drop. For their town. This is done in Ky. and In. GOOD LUCK

by DrChin	05/01/07 11:09 PM
The PMG recently said that mail volume was in fact up, so what downtrend are they talking about? The plants are routinely overburdened, so the postal solution is to close another plant. Brilliant! A lot of trouble to remove 19 craft employees.

by Jeff	05/01/07 09:57 PM
Like Baker said, St. Pete is a significant city....its number one for hate crimes and one of america's angriest cities. Please, give me a Tampa postmark

by Mike	05/01/07 06:05 PM
Oh get over it. St. Pete is just a Tampa suburb anyway. When you tell people you live in St. Pete they say, Where? and you say...TAMPA and they say, OH, yes. St. Pete is not a growing city, Tampa is. Tampa should just annex the place.

by Mark Bogdany	05/01/07 05:38 PM
I'm proud to have my mail say " ST. PETERSBURG " on my mail! It's one of the best places to live in the world!

by Sally	05/01/07 05:11 PM
Big deal, just make the postmark Tampa Bay

by Pisco	05/01/07 04:51 PM
Mail will be driven to Tampa sorted and driven back to St Petersburg Not very efficient use of resources Saint Petersburg is growing This decision seems short sighted to me Hopefully we don't see this headline First Commercial Flight City loses PM

by DrewFinn	05/01/07 04:36 PM
Who cares what postmark is on a piece of mail, as long as it gets where it is supposed to go?

by Paul	05/01/07 04:18 PM
In 50 years "In my day you had to actually write with a pen on paper-then wrap it up and put a stamp on it. Then a person would collect it and put it on a plane. Then another person would deliver it to your door. All in under a Week. E-Mail anyone?

by CC	05/01/07 03:42 PM
More mail for us!! More mail for us!! We don't have anything to keep us going when football season is over, we'll gladly do more mindless work - like stamping envelopes. Tampa is the perfect place for such drudgery - I mean job security.

by jes	05/01/07 03:15 PM
Typical Baker..more upset over the loss of the post mark than he is over the loss of jobs in St. Pete...can we ship him over to Tampa?

by Stephanie	05/01/07 02:56 PM
They report a savings of 4.6 million, yet the price of stamps continues to rise regularly. Hmmm.

by Gil	05/01/07 02:53 PM
So this $4.6 million savings will be passed on to you and me in the form of lower postage rates?

by mojito	05/01/07 02:16 PM
They should move the Tampa operations to St Pete. Only old people use the mail any more.

by John	05/01/07 01:26 PM
One day technology will make the post office obsolete and none of this will matter.

by paul	05/01/07 01:22 PM
they could save alot more by eliminating sat. residential/business delivery. i just don't understand in 2007 why they still do all the mail dleivery on saturday. must be a union thing.

by Robert	05/01/07 12:57 PM
our govt bureacracy continues, just like send more jobs to mexico and overseas, sometimes our taxes subsidides what we want like the IRS, they go after the 3 dollar bill but not the millions owed

by Richard	05/01/07 11:47 AM
Waaa! Waaa! Waaa! Like a postmark is going to ruin a life. Homelessness, uninsured and starving children in our country, soldiers dieing each day because of a fool in the white house. I think there are more important things to worry about.

by Barbara	05/01/07 11:28 AM
Gimme a break jime. How hard can it be to keep the mail separate and put a St. Pete postmark on it? I want the St. Pete postmark.

by Tina	05/01/07 11:05 AM
What about the loss of your city identity? You need to wake up-soon you will be considered Tampa West. If this trend continues there will be no more St. Petersburg. What will the city lose next? You need to wake up.

by Lee	05/01/07 10:42 AM
I'm sure that the $4.6 million figure includes the entire cost of the St. Pete operation -- the 19 employees salaries would only be a small part of that.

by BB	05/01/07 10:32 AM
I thought St. Pete was a growing city so why can't we have our own main post office. Lets keep it and look at something else.

by Dan	05/01/07 10:27 AM
Wahhhh!! (sniveling and whining) I live in city of St. Pete and (for some unknown reason) I am proud of my city. I want a city postmark. Bunch of cry babies. Try worrying about real life issues instead of inane things like this.

by More Truth	05/01/07 10:26 AM
And here's another big cost savings: dump the St. Pete Police Dept. and let the Sheriff's Office take over to clean up this drug hole of a city. Bet the Uhurus couldn't call the shots then.

by Truth	05/01/07 10:18 AM
Maybe the postmark could say "Mayor Baker's Uhurusburg"

by Barbara	05/01/07 09:53 AM
With all this money being saved, postage rate should be able to stay at 39 cents!!

by Allen	05/01/07 09:40 AM
Is it any wonder that the post office loses money each year. How does the reassignment of 19 workers save $4.6 million? Will those 19 workers not get paid?

by jime	05/01/07 09:18 AM
mayor baker needs to shut his pie hole. saving money is far more important than a silly postmark. wake up st pete--more fiscal irresponsibilty from rick baker!

by Hans	05/01/07 08:25 AM
19 jobs reassigned = $4.5 million saved? I'm applying for a job with the Post Office immediately! No wonder my brother still works for the Post Office after 16 years.

by Eric	05/01/07 08:23 AM
I fail to see why it's worth $4.6M annually for us in St Pete to have our own postmark. Doesn't the return address indicate to the recipient the origin of the letter?

by Jim	05/01/07 08:16 AM
Who looks at the postmark to see where a letter was cancelled? I can understand checking the date, but why would you care about where it was cancelled? Maybe they should just put the date and take the city off of all cancellations.

by Vinny	05/01/07 08:08 AM
Wasn't there talk of a Tampa Bay postmark? If they can create Manasota why not do the same here? It tires me that there is a fight about what side of the bay we are from.