Supervisor going to D.C. to fight for mail facility

Yuba County Supervisor Mary Jane Griego will meet with the U.S. deputy postmaster general in Washington D.C. on Thursday in what she and others acknowledge is a last-ditch effort to keep the U.S. Postal Service from shuttering the Olivehurst mail sorting facility.

County supervisors approved the $650 travel expense for Griego at today's meeting, with two supervisors and another county official saying they'd reimburse the county for its share of travel costs. American Postal Workers Union Area Local 211, which represents sorting facility workers, is paying the other half of Griego's travel costs.

"It's a very quick trip, but one 120 to 130 families are counting on," said Griego, referring to the number of workers at the facility who would be affected by the closure.

"We fight hard to bring businesses in, and we fight like hell to keep jobs here," she said at the meeting.

Griego said she'd meet with the deputy postmaster general along with union local president Rick Page and U.S. Reps. Wally Herger, R-Chico, and Tom McClintock, R-Granite Bay.

Under the U.S. Postal Service's plan, mail sorting will be shifted from Olivehurst to a facility in West Sacramento, beginning next month and set to be completed by October.

The shift affects all mail in the 959 ZIP code, including Yuba and Sutter counties. U.S. Postal officials have said the move won't affect service, but locals have said a 2005 sorting facility closure — later rescinded — caused significant delays.

Page said he, Griego and the congressmen will tell the deputy postmaster general about issues related to the shift they feel weren't properly considered in the postal service study that ended with the closure recommendation.

"Everything is in our favor," Page said. "I think they'll have a hard time proving their point about why it should be closed."

County officials have expressed concerns about delays in vote-by-mail ballots, the inability to continue agricultural inspections, and possible flooding risks at the West Sacramento facility.

If this push doesn't sway postal officials, Page said, there's little more anyone can do locally. "This is our last hurrah," he said.

CONTACT Ben van der Meer at 749-4709 or bvandermeer@appealdemocrat.com.