CLEANUP CONTRACTS AWARDED. Contracts have been awarded for the cleanup of the anthrax contaminated Processing & Distribution Centers in Washington, DC, and Hamilton Township, NJ. The two contracts are for Ashland Inc. and its Drew Industrial division ($1,164,670), and Sabre Oxidation Technologies Inc. ($1,255,833).

The contracts will initially cover the Brentwood facility cleanup, and provide the framework for the cleanup at Trenton. Work on the Brentwood facility will begin in the next few months, and USPS will finalize the contractors' arrangements for Trenton once the Brentwood cleanup has been successfully completed.

Ashland and Sabre - along with Shaw Environmental & Infrastructure Inc., formerly The IT Group, already under contract with USPS - will provide decontamination services, including design, program development and application of chlorine dioxide gas to eradicate anthrax contamination that resulted from the bio-terrorist events of September and October 2001.

  SAVING WITH ACE. The Advanced Computing Environment (ACE) will upgrade, modernize, enhance, secure and simplify the world's largest intranet infrastructure. It will also save up to $200 million over five years by centralizing and reducing support functions for 130,000 computer users among 28,000 postal facilities nationwide.

Chief Technology Officer Charles Bravo says, "This effort is about doing more with less - a key focus throughout the Postal Service as it works to transform itself.

  INSPECTORS BELIEVE ALL BOMBS FOUND. The Postal Inspection Service said it is confident that all of the bombs placed by the pipe bomber between May 3 and May 8 have been found. Rural letter carriers and customers discovered 18 bombs in a five-state area over the five-day period beginning last Friday in Illinois, and ending Tuesday in Amarillo, Texas. Wisconsin college student Luke Helder, 21, has been charged in connection with the bombings. During the height of the pipe-bomb scare, USPS had 150 Postal Inspectors working on the case.

  BOMB SUSPECT ARRESTED. Luke J. Helder, 21, was arrested Tuesday near Reno, NV, and charged in connection with 18 pipe bombs placed in rural mailboxes across five states.

PMG Jack Potter praised employees for their dedication and courage during the ordeal and thanked customers for their cooperation in leaving mailbox doors open to facilitate the delivery of mail in the five states where bombs had been found.

Potter urged all employees to continue to be vigilant, "to maintain the highest levels of alertness and caution," noting nothing is more important to the Postal Service than the safety of employees and the public.

  RATE PROCESS SUMMIT. In an effort to begin implementing some of the ideas contained in the Transformation Plan, USPS and the independent Postal Rate Commission (PRC) will jointly sponsor a Ratemaking Summit May 28 at the Center for Leadership Development (Bolger Academy) in Potomac, MD. The summit will be open to all interested persons who pre-register by 5 p.m. May 10 online at the PRC website, www.prc.gov.