BROOKLYN, NY— Effective Thursday, July 1, 2011, the U.S. Postal Service is adding a new ZIP Code and also making changes to ZIP Code boundaries in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn to keep up with an expanding number of deliveries in the area.

With the change, a new 11249 ZIP Code will be assigned to some Williamsburg delivery addresses. About 16,046 delivery customers are affected by these changes. The boundaries of the current 11211 ZIP Code area will be revised as a result of this change. (Click here to see a map showing the new ZIP Code boundaries.)

All customers living in areas affected by the ZIP Code change have received letters with their new ZIP Code information, according to Carmen Fede, postmaster of Brooklyn, NY.

Fede asks all customers who receive the notification letter to take note of their new ZIP Code and use it in their correspondence beginning in July. Otherwise, postal services to residents in that location will exist today as they have in the past.

For example, beginning July 1, customers in the new Williamsburg 11249 ZIP Code area who receive notices for letters or parcels requiring a signature will continue to pick up those items up at the Williamsburg Station Post Office, a branch of Brooklyn’s Main Post Office. Williamsburg Station located at 263 South 4th Street in Brooklyn, will continue to offer existing window retail services and mail delivery will remain unchanged.

For a one-year grace period, the USPS will recognize both the new and replaced ZIP Codes to minimize any customer inconvenience. This one-year period allows customers time to notify regular correspondents and make changes to stationery, etc.

According to Fede, reasons for the change include that ZIP Codes have a limited capacity of addresses before they become overburdened as tools for mail sorting and delivery.

"These changes are necessary so we can continue to provide excellent mail service,” Fede said. “ZIP Codes were created to help us provide efficient and effective mail delivery. With these changes, we will be able to continue providing the level of service our customers expect for years to come."

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A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 150 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. We’re everywhere so you can be anywhere: www.uspseverywhere.com. With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $67 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 29th in the 2010 Fortune 500. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency six consecutive years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.