HAMPDEN, Maine — Editor's note: The video attached to this story was published April 17.
United States Postal Service Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced Tuesday he was pausing any further changes to Maine's Hampden Processing Facility until next year.
The USPS announced last month they would be moving forward with plans to consolidate mail processing services at the Eastern Maine Mail Processing and Distribution Center in Hampden and transfer operations to its mail processing facility in Scarborough. The original plan was to invest $12 million into the Hampden hub, which mainly serves eastern and northern Maine.
DeJoy said there would be no further changes to the Hampden facility until Jan. 1, 2025.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. Gary Peters, D-Michigan, wrote a letter to DeJoy and the USPS Board of Governors dated May 8, which was signed by about two dozen senators, including Sen. Angus King, I-Maine. The letter called on USPS to stop the facility and transportation changes in its network plan until they could be studied, to ensure no harm would come to the mail delivery service.
As part of his Tuesday announcement, DeJoy stated he was committed to pausing all similar changes at facilities across the U.S. for the remainder of this year.
“This USPS pause is welcome news for the people of Maine,” Collins said in the release. “As I have said repeatedly, any consolidation of Maine’s two USPS processing facilities located in Hampden and Scarborough would jeopardize the reliable delivery of mail, including medication for Mainers who rely on mail order pharmacies and deliveries from federal agencies such as the U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs for their prescriptions.”
“This pause, however, should not be temporary – it should be permanent,” Collins continued. “The USPS should abandon these proposed changes entirely until there can be a study that ensures mail delivery will not be harmed, and we will continue to press them to do so.”
Collins has been against the proposed changes to the Hampden Plant since 2012, the release stated. In November 2023, Collins wrote a letter to DeJoy objecting to the proposal to consolidate outgoing operations of the two processing facilities, according to the release.
Congressman Jared Golden released the following statement Tuesday in response to the announcement:
"I’ve fought tooth and nail to protect rural communities from the restructuring proposed by USPS because I know how Mainers rely on the mail to receive medicine, conduct business, and keep in touch with their loved ones. This announcement is a big win for the entire state, and I’ll continue to push for a permanent stop to any plans that threaten mail service."