REGIONAL—The upcoming closure of the U.S. Postal Service’s Duluth sorting facility is likely to bring delays in delivery for both residential and commercial post office customers in northeastern Minnesota.

The closure, set for April 18, is part of a nationwide consolidation of postal service facilities intended to reduce operational costs— and it means even local mail will now be sorted at the postal service’s sorting facility in St. Paul.

The change will not just slow delivery, it means a much earlier cutoff each day for outgoing mail in most area communities. Starting April 18, mail will need to be at local post offices anytime between 7:30 a.m. (Nett Lake) to 11:30 a.m. (Tower) to get put on that day’s truck to St. Paul.

Mail coming into local post offices after that time, which will include any outgoing mail picked up by rural route drivers, will not start its journey until the next day.

“First class mail is now a two-day letter,” said post office spokesman Peter Nowacki, who is based in St. Paul. “That is our nationwide delivery standard effective January of this year.”

Nowacki estimated that a first class letter mailed in Tower would take two to three days to be delivered in Minnesota, and at least three days if going out-of-state.

“This is a big change we are asking people to make,” said Nowacki, but he noted that similar transitions in both Rochester and St. Cloud in 2013 went smoothly.

The changes have some local businesses worried.

Greg and Christine Bolstad operate a home-based business in Pike Township, and use the U.S. Postal Service for most of their deliveries.

The couple is now looking at other options for mailing their original pottery and worry stone designs from Dog Star Designs.

“Mail was more affordable,” Christine said, noting that now they were going to have to rely more on Federal Express and United Parcel Service, especially for any rush orders.

Since their mail is picked up by their rural carrier, their packages are automatically going to be delayed a day, since they will have to sit overnight in Virginia. Right now their carrier is able to get their packages to the Virginia Post Office in time to make that day’s truck.

“It’s getting down to Pony Express speed,” said Greg.

The changes will be affecting some newspaper customers. Timberjay subscribers who live in Cook, Orr, Tower, Soudan, Embarrass, Ely, and Babbitt will not see any changes in their delivery dates, because Timberjay staff deliver papers directly to these post offices on Thursday for delivery on Friday. Subscribers in 557-, 558-, or 556-zip codes will also not see any changes to start, because at least until the end of July, those papers will continue to be sorted in Duluth. But starting in August those periodicals will be sorted in St. Paul, and those subscribers, said Duluth bulk mailing specialist Barb Mercer, will most likely see a day’s delay. Out-of-county and out-of-state subscribers may or may not see changes, depending on where they live. Subscribers can get free access to the e-edition, which is online every Thursday morning, once they have set up an online account at www.timberjay.com.

Package services and Priority Mail will not be affected, and the cost to mail a first class letter will remain at 49 cents. Postal service officials estimate the consolidations will reduce the service’s operating costs by $20 billion by 2017, and return the postal service to financial stability.

New mail pick-up times starting April 18

Nett Lake- 7:30 a.m.

Orr- 10:30 a.m.

Cook- 11 a.m.

Ely- 11 a.m.

Tower- 11:30 a.m.

Soudan- 11:30 a.m.

Embarrass- Blue box pickup 11:30 a.m.

Babbitt- 9:45 a.m.