Full Service at Post Offices Will Return in September

WASHINGTON — Window service at the nation’s post offices, reduced earlier this year to save money, will return to normal in September, the Postal Service announced today.

Postmaster General Anthony M. Frank, who made the announcement, said the agency has found sufficient savings in other areas to allow it to restore full window hours.

The announcement came at a meeting of the postal Board of Governors at which Frank disclosed that the controversial consulting contract with Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot may have to be renegotiated.

The Postal Service announced the 10% reduction in window hours in January as one step to save $160 million from its expenditures this year and bring it into compliance with spending reductions ordered by Congress. It was left to local postmasters to decide when to close the windows.

Frank said that normal window service will be restored effective Sept. 10.

But the service restoration will not necessarily mean a return to the old schedules, Frank said. Rather, he said he has told postmasters to open windows during the hours deemed most appropriate for their communities.

Frank did not address cutbacks in Sunday mail sorting, a reduction also made earlier in January to save money.

Turning to the Perot contract, Frank said it will have to be modified because of the controversy surrounding the deal.

The Perot contract is a potentially multimillion-dollar deal calling for an analysis of postal operations in an effort to find ways of saving money. It carries an initial $500,000 price tag, but subsequently would provide Perot a share of any savings that result from recommendations he makes.

The contract, which was not open for bids, has been challenged by at least two would-be competitors.