Tropico’s post office branch stops sorting

Tropico’s branch of the U.S. Postal Service will stop sorting mail for delivery beginning Saturday as part of ongoing cost-cutting measures, but retail services such as selling stamps and renting P.O. boxes will continue to be offered at the site.

The 27 mail carriers who used to pick up letters from the Tropico post office, located at 120 E. Chevy Chase Ave., will now head to Glendale’s two other post offices at the start of their shifts.

Mail with local zip codes ending in “05” will be processed at the Verdugo Viejo branch at 101 N. Verdugo, while mail with zip codes ending in “04” will be sorted at the Glendale Main Post Office at 313 E. Broadway.

--
FOR THE RECORD: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the Verdugo Viejo post office was located on Pacific Avenue.
--

Richard Maher, a spokesman with the Postal Service, said the change would be “pretty invisible” to residents and businesses and won’t affect the time of day they typically receive their mail.

Trimming the number of stops mail trucks make from three to two branches will save approximately $538,000 a year, Maher said.

“The fewer locations we have, the more efficient we can be,” he said.

The cost reduction is just a small piece of closing a multibillion-dollar budget gap for the Postal Service.

The move will see some workers and managers reassigned to other locations, but no one will be let go, Maher said.

Not much should change at the Tropico branch as operating hours and retail services are to remain the same, he added.

Cutting mail sorting will leave some empty space in the building, but there are no plans on the table to use it for something else, Maher said.