A couple of vans in front of the SW Resources complex on Seventh Street in Parkersburg. The organization merged with Goodwill Industries of Kanawha Valley Inc. early in 2024. Wood County officials and other businesses in the area received a letter recently from Goodwill saying they were discontinuing their mail processing business.

PARKERSBURG – Goodwill Industries of Kanawha Valley Inc. stopped the mail processing services that had been locally done for years by SW Resources effective Tuesday, affecting local businesses and government operations.

During Monday’s meeting of the Wood County Commission, County Administrator Marty Seufer presented the commission with a letter from David Mitchell, Director of Business Services for Goodwill Industries of Kanawha Valley Inc.

“We regret to inform you that, effective Dec. 31, 2024, we will no longer be able to process mail,” Mitchell’s letter said. “This decision was not made lightly and comes as a result of unforeseen circumstances.

“We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and for the short notice of this communication. We deeply value your trust and support and are truly sorry for any disruption this change may create.”

A phone number was supplied to call with concerns about the transition. Mitchell thanked those who had been served in the past.

Mitchell could not be reached Tuesday for further comment. A message was left at his office.

Commission President Blair Couch said he is talking with people to see if someone else can handle the mail.

“There has to be someone that wants to make money,” he said.

Officials mentioned a couple of businesses and organizations in the area, but Seufer said some no longer processed mail and others were too small to handle the county’s volume.

Couch suggested clients at Recovery Point, who are there for 14 months for drug treatment and rehabilitation, might being able to do the work.

Commissioner Jimmy Colombo said he wasn’t comfortable with a drug treatment operation doing the work.

Commissioner Robert Tebay said he wanted to put the word out that they are looking for someone who can process mail.

In the meantime, Seufer said the county had to buy stamps for the immediate future. He estimates they spend around $8,000 a month processing mail and for postage.

“That is to get us through until we come up with a solution,” Seufer said.

It was announced last February that SW Resources, a local non-profit providing employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities, was merging with Goodwill Industries of Kanawha Valley in Charleston.

Cyndie Wade, a county employee with experience in mail processing, has talked with representatives with Output Solutions, a division of Champion Industries in Charleston, to see if it could process the county mail.

The county has several thousand pieces mailed each month, Seufer said. He said those were the “day-to-day” things the county regularly deals with. Bulk items, like tax tickets, are handled differently.

However, the county won’t know if the company will be able to do that until the end of the first full week in January. Wade told the commission the company is looking to pick up other businesses that were served by SW Resources.

“They would not know anything until after the first of the year,” she said. “They are trying to get a game plan together to what will be possible to do.”

Wade said there could be a delay of a day as they would pick up the mail in the mornings so any day’s mail would not be picked up until the following morning.

If there were any emergency pieces that would have to go out immediately, those could be taken to the post office by county employees, she said.

Officials are also looking at prices for postage machines, but officials said they are looking at that as a “last resort” as there is a lot that has to be done to maintain it and a lot of time for employees to get through a single day’s volume of mail.

Mail processing is a tough business to do, because any money to be made is from the service itself, adding the more places a business deals with the more feasible it is to do, Wade said.

Couch lamented the merger between Goodwill and SW Resources and commented on those who said it would be good for all those involved.

“I thought the whole time it is not,” he said. “There is no way it could be.”

Rick Modesitt served on the Board of Directors at SW Resources and resigned earlier this year as the merger was coming together. Modesitt, a local businessman, is the former Parkersburg Police Chief, a former Wood County Commissioner and a former state legislator. He had a brother with disabilities who worked at SW Resources for 40 years.

“When this merger was being discussed, I was not in favor of it,” he said. “I thought it would affect the core mission of what I thought SW Resources was, which was to employ people with disabilities.”

Modesitt resigned because he felt the merger was moving the organization away from that mission.

“The core mission was to give people with disabilities the opportunity to have a meaningful life and a safe work environment,” he said. “That, in some respect, seems to be going away because that is a real shame.”

Modesitt said the mail business SW Mail Plus did was a huge business, especially during election years with a lot of different mailers. They also handled mailings for the state of West Virginia and other businesses in the area.

He is concerned about the people who worked there and if they will be able to find work elsewhere.

“The people who will be hurt the most are the people with disabilities who will not be able to find a job in the real world,” he said.

Contact Brett Dunlap at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com