Postal closure debated

While much of the discussion over the potential closing of the U.S Postal Service mail sorting facility in Olivehurst has centered on job losses, those who deal with two specific areas of the mail said delays could have a bigger effect.

Election officials said any local service delays could affect increasingly popular vote-by-mail ballots, while commercial printers believe owners of stores and other businesses might stop informing potential customers about pending specials if they can't get the notices out in time.

Those concerns come near the end of a public-comment period for a study over the possible closure, which would shift all 100 or so workers in Olivehurst to a sorting facility in West Sacramento.

Terry Hansen, Yuba County's registrar of voters, said her concerns about vote-by-mail delays stem from when the U.S. Postal Service briefly closed the Olivehurst facility before, causing delays of up to five days for local mail.

"I can appreciate the need to cut costs in rough economic times," said Hansen, whose office has been subject to cutbacks in county funding.

The Postal Service has said that a significant slowdown in mail volume partially attributed to the slow economy prompted the closure study.

"But after the bad taste we were left with the last time they did this, I'm a little gun-shy," Hansen said.

For her office, delays would cause problems because voting laws require vote-by-mail ballots to be with county registrar offices on Election Day in order to be counted.

If a Yuba County voter mails a ballot days before the election, but it doesn't arrive until afterward, it won't be counted, Hansen said, even if the postmark indicates it was mailed in time. The problem could especially affect military members stationed elsewhere with a home address here, she said.

"I would hesitate to tell them when they could send it and be safe," Hansen said of a situation where delays were possible. "All we can go on is what happened the last time."

The Olivehurst facility processes mail for all ZIP codes starting with "959," which includes Yuba, Sutter, Butte and other counties. Hansen said that on election nights, her office picks up mail ballots at the facility for those counties as a courtesy, but couldn't do so if the sorting moved to West Sacramento.

But a Postal Service official maintained Monday, as they have during the entire study process, that residents won't see any mail delays if the Olivehurst center is closed.

"We have agreements with registrars to handle mail ballots promptly," said Gus Ruiz, a Postal Service spokesman for the Sacramento region. "That's one of the things we've handled the best."

Mail notices from businesses should also arrive as promptly as they do now, Ruiz said, noting Postal Service requirements stating any closure of a sorting facility can only improve or remain at the same level of service customers already receive.

Ruiz said comments on the study can be submitted until Thursday.

A regional postal director recommended the center be closed, but higher-ranking Postal Service officials on the West Coast and in Washington, D.C., would also have to do so for it to happen, Ruiz said.

An announcement on the facility's fate isn't expected until late January.

While Hansen's concern would apply to election season, delays over store mailers would be an ongoing problem, said a commercial printer who does such work for local retailers.

"They always want it out the next day," said Pam Allis, production manager at BFS Printing Bulk Mail Etc. in Yuba City. "I'll have to try to get them in here earlier."

Many store owners who announce events such as a two-day sale don't start the process for printing such notices until close to the sale itself, she said. Her business and others pride themselves on finishing the print order the day it comes in, and having the notice out the next one, Allis said.

"I would say it's going to be a permanent inconvenience," she said.

Another print shop owner, Bill McNeill of Marathon Business Forms in Yuba City, said any delays in mail are bad across the board.

"Anything that diminishes the ability to send invoices or checks hurts business," he said.

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