Community leaders and Iowa's two U.S. senators made no secret Friday of their frustration with the U.S. Postal Service's announcement it will close Sioux City's mail processing and distribution center and move it 75 miles north to Sioux Falls, S.D.
The transition is expected to be completed by October, according to the postal service. Local leaders, union members, residents, business owners and Iowa's federal lawmakers have fought that proposal. And they indicated Friday they aren't done yet.
"Sioux City will appeal this decision to the highest authorities and is pursuing a variety of legal actions," City Manager Paul Eckert said.
The decision came amid the city's battle with rising Missouri River floodwaters, timing that was not lost on U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.
"I am nothing short of outraged by this decision -- particularly given that it comes just as this area of the state is grappling with a flood and levees are nearly bursting due to rising flood waters," Harkin said.
U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who only recently met with the postmaster general on the matter, said the postal service didn't take seriously a city proposal for financial assistance to keep operations in Sioux City.
"The postal service assured the congressional delegation that the community's input was 'valued and carefully considered,' but we don't know how that input was used in the decision-making process," Grassley said. "We need an answer about whether the alternative was, in fact, thoroughly reviewed and the specific reasons it was not pursued in lieu of the consolidation to Sioux Falls."
Councilman Aaron Rochester said the city offered to help pay to expand the processing center on land it already owns in Sioux City. Conversely, he said, "They have no room to grow in Sioux Falls."
Hawkeye District Manager Gail Duba of Des Moines said in a prepared statement, "There will be no change in service standards for 97 percent of the mail."
"The significant cost savings and productivity gains expected from this consolidation were deciding factors in making this very difficult decision," Duba said.
Duba said mail volume has dropped 20 percent since 2007, and asserted the Sioux Falls distribution center has the capacity to handle the additional workload, resulting in "significant savings."
About 70 workers would be impacted by the closure. Jim Price, an executive for the American Postal Workers Union Local 186, could not be reached for comment Friday.
Duba said career employees will be reassigned to the Sioux Falls distribution center or to other vacant positions.
"I am as concerned about the employees having to move or losing their jobs as much as the lack of service rendered to Sioux City and its businesses," Mayor Mike Hobart said from his lake home in Minnesota. "I think it's a shame."
While the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce indicated it supports the goal of achieving greater efficiency in postal operations, Chris McGowan, chamber president, said the group decision doesn't seem to make sense.
"The unprecedented lack of transparency with which the USPS conducted this process, can't help but call into question the basis for their conclusions," McGowan argued.
City Councilman John Fitch also said he was disappointed the city never had what he called "a real dialogue with the decision makers. When they came to Sioux City, we asked a lot of questions, but really got no answers."
Still, city leaders pledged to fight on.
"It appeared like it was a done deal right from the start," Mayor Pro-Tem Tom Padgett said.
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