Tuesday, April 26, 2011 • Eagle Lake Station saved from Postal Service chopping block, fate of other Lassen County sites unknown

Publisher’s note: This story originally appeared in the Tuesday, April 26, 2011 edition of the Lassen County Times.

Susanville residents who use the Eagle Post Office on Johnstonville Road will not have to worry about the station closing anytime soon. An information meeting planned for this evening, Tuesday, April 26, has been cancelled.

Postal Service spokesman for the Nevada District (which includes Lassen County) David Rupert said after a Friday morning meeting within the postal service offices it was decided that Eagle Lake Station would not be on the chopping block for now.

He said the initially scheduled meeting was only one of thousands to discuss the viability of rural post offices across the nation.

“Nothing’s imminent right now,” Rupert said. “We’re having more than 2,000 meetings like this one across the country right now in order to better focus the goals of the U.S. Post Office.”

Before the cancellation of the meeting, Rupert said he was concerned the American Postal Workers Union 891 branch has said anyone with a P.O. Box in the 96127 Zip Code might have to change their address and have a new P.O. Box number at the 96130 Post Office.

“That is not correct,” Rupert said. “Nobody would have to change their addresses.”

Rupert said the problem is moot at this point, but if need be the postal service could look at the closing of the station in the future.

If Eagle Station ever did need to consolidate, Rupert said the Main Street post office would have to build out additional P.O. Boxes that had matching box numbers, city addresses and zip codes from Eagle Station.

Rupert said Eagle Station customers would also have to get a new key to use a P.O. Box at the Main Street station.

“We’re trying to consolidate our services to become more efficient,” Rupert said. “Across the country, first-class mail delivery has gone down 20 percent over the last three years. That’s about 210 billion pieces of mail declining to 160 billion pieces of mail. That’s our bread and butter.”

When asked about the letters issued by the post office to Susanville customers that said Eagle Station’s workload has declined and APWU members saying the workload has increased, Rupert said he couldn’t confirm either way.

As far as the May 4 meeting about the future of the Herlong Post Office, Rupert said the meeting was more of a study on the services offered by the Herlong Post Office. Rupert only confirmed the April 26 meeting for Susanville was cancelled. For now, the May 4 meeting in Herlong will be held.

He said should that station close, Herlong’s 511 postal customers would have to travel 10.4 miles to the relatively new post office in Doyle. He also mentioned that Herlong’s biggest postal customer was Federal Correctional Institute, Herlong, which would be the most affected by a closure. He said the Sierra Army Depot would also be affected, but did not specify how much.

“It’s important for people to realize these are just meetings,” Rupert said. “We’re not closing anything right now.”