Earlier this year, the United States Postal Service announced its intention to conduct an evaluation of current operations at the North Platte Processing and Distribution Center. A large portion of the review centered on the possibility of some mail processing being relocated from North Platte to Denver. In some cases, mail that is being dropped off in Greater Nebraska would be transported to North Platte and then to Denver for processing before heading to the recipient.
Decades-long District One Lincoln County Commissioner Joe Hewgley expressed concerns about the efficiency of what is being proposed while pointing to the COVID-19 pandemic when postal operations relied heavily on the North Platte facility and its workers. Mail was shipped from Denver because workers did not want to come to work in Denver. Hewgley expressed concerns for not just North Platte and Lincoln County but for Greater Nebraska as well. “You think about all of these outlying areas that feed into us. I mean you go out to Flatts Nebraska or Lakeside, some of these little communities. This is just a big deal,” said Hewgley. Today (Thursday) the Postal Service will hold a public meeting at 6 p.m. at the Sandhills Convention Center in North Platte to present their initial findings and hear community feedback.