Neither rain, wind stop protest

In their push to save Yuba-Sutter's mail sorting center and nearly 170 jobs, workers and allies on Sunday took their cause to the streets.

Workers at the U.S. Postal Service's distribution hub in Olivehurst staged a "drive-through protest" on North Beale Road, seeking petitioners to fight the U.S. Postal Service's possible closure of the center.

"Keep your mail from going south! We need signatures! Save your local post office!" shouted Bill Davis as he and about 20 other Olivehurst postal workers braved steady rain to wave placards to drivers passing the old Peach Tree Mall. Under a tent in the mall's huge parking lot, supporters signed their names to an anti-closure petition scheduled to be sent this week to California's two U.S. senators and Rep. Wally Herger, R-Chico.

Postal Service directors earlier this year floated the idea of consolidating the center with another sorting hub in West Sacramento, citing a loss of revenue as annual mail volume has dropped by about 30 billion pieces in three years. The Olivehurst office has handled Yuba-Sutter mail since 1998, when the service moved sorting there from the Marysville post office.

Protesters sought to grab residents' attention in advance of a forum in Marysville, at which the Postal Service is expected to announce the Olivehurst mail hub's shutdown. The postal workers' local announced the meeting has been moved from Tuesday to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, in the Friday Night Live Youth Center at 301 Fourth St.

Opponents of the Olivehurst center's closure fear it will cause delivery slowdowns in Yuba-Sutter as well as Colusa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas and Sierra counties. They have pointed to the 2006 move of outgoing mail delivery to West Sacramento, which reportedly stretched deliveries between Marysville and Yuba City to five days or longer before the Postal Service reversed the move two years later.

Postal officials have said reduced mail volume would make such delays unlikely now, but activists in Linda remained unmoved, saying the hour-long trip to Yolo County and extra mail volume there would take their toll. Locals and officials alike also held out little hope that delivery could be as speedy without a Yuba County facility — or that any lost jobs could be easily replaced.

"I don't think my bills would get here in time," said Heidi Doherty of Linda, one of the petition signers. "If it goes to West Sac I'm looking at two or three more days — and probably late fees."

"We're hurting people that can't afford to be hurt," said Yuba County Supervisor Andy Vasquez, who planned the drive-in protest along with Local 211. "How can we bring businesses here when we have to tell people 'Oh, by the way, your mail will take five days to go to the other side of the river?'

"Maybe in dollars and cents they can't make it work, but morally they can."