Postal Service defends closure study

U.S. Postal Service officials on Wednesday defended a study over whether to close an Olivehurst sorting facility, while maintaining no final decision has been reached about its final fate.

A marked drop in mail volume, said Sacramento district manager Rosemarie Fernandez, means the postal service has to consider the most efficient way to use its resources.

"We're like any other business that's looking to reduce costs," Fernandez said. "We have to see about consolidating facilities."

Mail volume peaked in 2006 at 212 billion pieces nationally; that number has dropped to 175 billion so far this year, according to USPS. Postal service spokesman Gus Ruiz said the two main factors behind the drop are a slowdown in business mail as a result of the recession and more people using the Internet for paying bills. If the Olivehurst facility is closed — postal officials are scheduled to discuss the study at a hearing in Marysville next week — it would mean shifting about 125 jobs to a sorting facility in West Sacramento, or postal offices elsewhere, Fernandez said.

By collective bargaining agreement, employees working at the Olivehurst facility must be offered other positions, so closing the facility wouldn't necessarily mean an elimination of the jobs, she said.

Those opposing the facility's closure, led by the local postal workers' union and Yuba County Supervisor Andy Vasquez, have said the county can't afford to lose jobs when it's already hard hit by the recession.

Rick Page, president of American Postal Workers Union Area Local 211, said union members at the West Sacramento site who have been similarly moved in recent months will have first dibs on being able to move back there, making him skeptical about whether Olivehurst workers will be able to do so.

"There's no way we're going to West Sacramento," he said.

Page and others have also said closing the facility will hurt mail service in the Yuba-Sutter region, based on a closure in 2006 resulting in a several-day trip for a piece of mail between Yuba City and Marysville.

Postal officials said they have better indicators now to measure how well they provide service. And senior plant manager Bill Hodson Sr. said by mandate, closing a facility means USPS can only maintain or improve service in the area.

Closing Olivehurst, he said, would cut delivery times between the region and San Francisco/Oakland, from two days to overnight.

Fernandez added, the West Sacramento site has expanded by 300,000-square feet in recent years, which should help maintain service for an increase in volume. All ZIP codes beginning with "959" would be affected by an Olivehurst closure.

Even with the discussion of potential effects, Fernandez said, observers shouldn't assume the Olivehurst closure is written in stone.

Page disputed that, faxing a letter dated Nov. 23 from Fernandez to USPS Pacific Area Operations Vice President Drew Aliperto that recommended the facility be closed.

Vasquez, Page and others are hosting a "drive-through" rally on Sunday in Linda to drum up opposition against the facility's closure. They also hope to pack the room with residents and government officials against the move at the Wednesday hearing in Marysville.

"We've got a lot of people interested," Page said. "I think we're going to have a big turnout."

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.

• What: Drive-through protest against the potential closure of a U.S. Postal Service sorting facility in Olivehurst.

• When: 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday

• Where: Peach Tree Mall, North Beale Road, Linda