Postal delivery, other services to continue despite new federal holiday, Juneteenth

Although President Joe Biden on Thursday made Juneteenth, which falls on Saturday, the newest federal holiday, the proclamation came too late to have an effect on this weekend’s mail delivery, banking hours or other services, officials said.

The change happened just before the holiday, so it’s too late to switch up office or postal workers’ schedules, said Augustine “Augie” Ruiz with the U. S. Postal Service’s Corporate Communications in San Jose.

“Because of such short notice, postal operations will be normal full delivery and post offices will be open,” Ruiz said.

President Joe Biden signed legislation Thursday establishing June 19 as Juneteenth National Independence Day — a U.S. federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. He said it will be remembered as “one of the greatest honors” of his presidency.

Banking will still be a breeze.

“Any holidays we close for are planned for and noted on the calendar and that kind of stuff,” said Shirley Taylor, a Redwood Credit Union member service representative. “So as far as I know, we will be open tomorrow and Saturday.”

She said she wasn’t sure what the process is for preplanning federal and state holidays off.

“If it is a federal holiday next year, I can only assume we will have to take the day off,” Taylor said.

Wells Fargo Bank branches and operations centers will remain open as usual the next two days, said Edith Rocio Robles, assistant vice president for corporate communications for the Bay Area region. She released the following official statement:

“We applaud the historic action to make Juneteenth a federal holiday, and we will provide an additional personal holiday in 2021 to all eligible U.S.-based employees so they may commemorate Juneteenth on a day of their choosing this year.”

The statement went on to say that the company “will observe Juneteenth as a federal holiday starting next year.”

Garbage collection will still go on as planned, a Recology Sonoma representative said.

“It has to be OK’d by our franchises first before we can take that holiday off,” said Anna, a customer services representative who declined to give her last name. “We don’t get Memorial Day off, we don’t take a lot of federal holidays off. It would have be in our contracts with franchises and usually contracts don’t come up until January.”

Since the holiday only applies to federal employees, Sonoma County spokesperson Matt Brown said no county facilities, including branch libraries, will be affected by the advent of the new holiday.

You can reach Staff Writer Kathleen Coates at kathleen.coates@pressdemocrat.com.