USPS to install new Springfield postmaster

The U.S. Postal Service today has scheduled a ceremony to swear in its new Springfield postmaster.

At 3 p.m. at the main Springfield office, 500 W. Chestnut Expressway, Jeff Drake will be sworn in as Springfield's 32nd postmaster, according to a news release.

He succeeds Bill Brayman, who retired last summer, according to a report from Springfield Business Journal's media partner, KSPR.

As postmaster in Springfield, Drake is responsible for an annual budget of more than $4 million, a mail processing plant, three delivery units and three retail window units. Springfield delivers to 117,000 daily customers and processes mail for the Springfield metropolitan area, as well as southern Missouri and northern Arkansas, the release said.

However, the mail processing center is scheduled to close its sorting operations in February 2014. The sorting center closure would send most local mail to Kansas City, according to Postal Service spokesman Richard Watkins.

Drake began working with the USPS in 1996 as a flat sorter clerk in Fort Worth, Texas, moved to management in 2000, and served as a postmaster in Midland, Texas, before his appointment to Springfield, according to the release.