Flood of input delays postal decision

A rush of written comments submitted to the U.S. Postal Service has pushed back the timeline for deciding the fate of the agency's Olivehurst sorting facility, for at least a few weeks.

Sacramento-area postal spokesman Gus Ruiz said the period to submit comments over possibly closing the plant ended Dec. 31, but sifting through them all has taken longer than expected.

"There's been a lot of public input," Ruiz said. "There were a lot of concerns and a lot of questions, and we tried to answer as many of them as we can."

Under the original timeline for the study on whether to close the Olivehurst facility and transfer about 110 jobs there to a sorting facility in West Sacramento, the study, public comments and a recommendation from a district manager would go to the U.S. postmaster in Washington, D.C., by mid-January. A final decision had been scheduled for next month.

Instead, Ruiz said, he didn't expect all the comments to be processed for a few more days, and the full study and other materials won't go east until later in February. There's no new timeline for when the decision would be made.

The recommendation from the Sacramento district manager at the time, Rosemarie Fernandez, was to close the facility, drawing strong opposition locally.

But in another twist, Fernandez has been moved out of that role, said John Fleming, Yuba County's economic development director.

"It's still a standing recommendation that carries some weight," Fleming said.

But he said he and leaders with the postal workers union representing those at the facility still plan to vigorously contest the recommendation.

Fleming pointed out that the Olivehurst site has consistently done well on performance evaluations, while the West Sacramento site has not.

"I think there's a question of why don't they consider consolidating an underperforming facility with a better performing one, rather than the other way around," Fleming said.

Postal Service officials have said a drop, expected to be permanent, in first-class mail, along with equipment in West Sacramento capable of better processing, make the potential move sensible economically.

However, economic development director and union officials have said consolidation will result in mail delays locally, as what happened when the Olivehurst facility was briefly closed for similar reasons in 2005.

Fernandez and other postal officials have said local mail service can only remain the same or improve if such a move takes place.

Regardless of the decision, Fleming said, the county won't give up easily.

"We are going to aggressively retain any manufacturing and related jobs in our county," Fleming said. "It's not only important for our regional economy and our mail service, but for our local economy and jobs base in Olivehurst."

Contact Appeal reporter Ben van der Meer at 749-4709 or bvan dermeer@appealdemocrat.com. For more Yuba County news, see Ben's blog "Yuba County Insider" at appealdemocrat .com.