The U.S. Postal Service has decided to make the mail-carrier annex in Healdsburg the town's permanent main post office, the result of last summer's fire that destroyed the cherished downtown facility.
Postal officials on Tuesday announced the decision, saying the vice-president of facilities in Washington D.C. approved making the Foss Creek carrier annex the main post office.
"It's unfortunate that is the decision they came to," said Mayor Tom Chambers, who nevertheless was not surprised.
Bay Area postal officials in early January said that would be their recommendation, despite many requests from residents to re-establish a downtown location, which they considered a convenient community hub only a block from the Healdsburg Plaza.
In essence, postal authorities said their need to cut costs in the face of a precipitous nationwide drop in mail volume and a net loss of more than $8 billion last fiscal year made it unrealistic to remain downtown.
Although there is a 15-day period to appeal the decision, Chambers was not optimistic about reversing it.
"It sounds like it will be an uphill battle," he said.
Postal Spokesman James Wigdel said Tuesday that it makes sense financially for the main post office to be at Foss Creek Circle, a building that is owned by the Postal Service, but still a half-mile from the old downtown location.
Previously postal officials said that re-establishing a 6,000-square-foot downtown post office would cost almost $1.3 million in building costs and more than $192,000 in annual lease fees.
Critics questioned the figures, saying they may be vastly inflated because the old post office, dating from 1969, was bigger than needed.
The agency announced in 2008 that it was going to close the facility as a cost-cutting measure, but dropped the plan after a community uproar.
But the Aug. 14 fire - officially of undetermined cause - sealed the fate of the downtown facility.
Wigdel said Tuesday the postal service is still open to the possibility of a contract postal unit in a downtown business that would do everything a regular post office does, except handle money orders.
But he said things are going smoothly at the annex, despite some early complaints about traffic back-ups in the parking lots.
"It's actually going quite well over there," Wigdel said. "We get a lot of positive comments from customers."
Wigdel emphasized that under federal law, the community still has two weeks to appeal.
Letters may be directed to: Vice President, Facilities; Attn: Diana K. Alvarado; Facilities Planning and Requirements; 395 Oyster Point Boulevard, Suite 225; South San Francisco, CA 94080-0300
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