IRON MOUNTAIN — Protests against mail service changes in the Upper Peninsula are ongoing, including a online petition launched by Dickinson County Board that seeks to abolish the Delivering for America plan championed by U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.

The board’s petition at change.org describes the plan as “a poorly executed strategy” that has caused significant delays in mail delivery. Those delays, protesters claim, will only get worse if the postal service discontinues the processing of outgoing mail at its facility in Kingsford.

A USPS review of the Kingsford center has drawn criticism from citizens as well as state and federal lawmakers because it proposes moving some mail operations to Green Bay, Wis. The Kingsford processing facility is the only one in the U.P. and lawmakers say it’s central to the timely processing and delivery of mail.

The county board’s petition, available at https://www.change.org/p/demand-the-usps-board-of-governors-abandon-the-delivering-for-america-plan, addresses the nationwide impact of Delivering for America. New mail service centers in Virginia and Georgia are operating at only 36% of processing goals, the petition states.

Started on April 29, the county’s petition calls upon the USPS Board of Governors to abandon the plan.

During a U.S. Senate hearing last month, DeJoy said USPS must change to reduce losses and make the postal service competitive for the future.

Locally, his plan has drawn few believers.

On Monday, Iron Mountain City Council supported a resolution initiated by the county board that seeks to maintain current services at the Kingsford processing center. Discontinuing the processing of outgoing mail at Kingsford would reduce services for citizens and businesses across the U.P., the resolution states.

Iron Mountain council member Dave Farragh said sending U.P. mail into Wisconsin will add an extra day or two to delivery times, assuming there’s a facility prepared to handle it.

“Why haul it down there?” he asked. “I don’t understand.”

In a news conference after the April 16 Senate hearing, U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., vowed to press USPS and DeJoy to slow the Delivering for America process down. He says the plan should be put on hold until USPS is able to prove its merits.

USPS officials have pledged to invest $3 million to $5 million in the Kingsford facility as part of a conversion to a local processing center. The resolution adopted by the Iron Mountain council, however, says the modifications will result in a loss of jobs and a negative economic impact.

Meanwhile, Dickinson County’s petition has drawn several hundred signatures in its first week.