Post Office

Garth Meyer, Gazette Reporter | Dec 01, 20110

A debate is on regarding a proposal to close the Malden Post Office.

The red-brick corner stop is the hub of the former railroad town, adjacent to the chipped paint of the former Caboose Tavern, which closed 12 years ago.

At one of 3,700 postal locations across the country slated for potential closure, cars pull up and the first customers walk in the door, a golden retriever down the street barks and lifts his front paws onto the fence to watch.

The day’s activities commence – in a town that has no street mail service.

Ernest Kish is an 11-year resident, with a house he’s been trying to sell for four years.

He said the building is more than a post office.

“It’s where you see everybody, say ‘hi,’ find out who’s died and who hasn’t, and just what’s going on,” Kish said.

The post office is the only way to get mail in Malden. Each residence has a post office box.

Under the federal proposal to close it, that would change.

Malden residents would get street delivery from a rural route carrier out of Rosalia, seven miles away.

Since an Oct. 5 meeting at the Malden Community Center, when the Postal Service unveiled a plan to close the 99-year-old location, Malden residents have expressed their disapproval.

The meeting began a 60-day comment period, which ends Dec. 4. Before the meeting, questionnaires were sent out to residents.

The local citizens’ opposition – which includes the complaint that outer-Malden residents were not sent the questionnaires because their mail comes from Rosalia – has resulted in a letter to the Postal Service from district state legislators, Sen. Mark Schoesler and Rep. Joe Schmick and Rep. Susan Fagan.

The letter contends that many Malden farmers and ranchers receive their mail from rural carrier out of Rosalia, but Malden is their “closest retail outlet; and they should have been included in the process from the beginning.”

The letter also contends that the community meeting was a violation of Post Office handbook 101 Section 714, subsections c and d. Adequate notice was not given to customers and the meeting was held at 4:30 on a weekday when many could not be there due to work.

According to the official proposal from U.S. Postal Service, the reason that the Malden office is being studied for possible closing is a “steady decline in revenue and/or volume” and that there are “a number of sites within a short radius of this office that can provide the sale of stamps and the mailing of most package items.”

Under the Postal Service’s proposal, the Malden zip code would not be expected to change and the community name would be the same on customer addressing.

At the end of the 60-day comment period on Dec. 4, all comments will be sent to Postal Service headquarters in Washington, D.C.

If the national headquarters decides to close Malden, a 30-day appeal period will begin.

“This is a town with 260 to 290 people in it, mostly senior citizens,” said Kish. “For them having the post office close is a hardship. A lot of them don’t drive.”

The Postal Service acknowledges there will no longer be a retail outlet in the community. However, the plan includes delivery and retail services made available from a rural or contract delivery carrier. It would require a customer to meet the carrier on their route.

Jeff Kaufman, a ranchhand who pulled up to open a post office box at Malden Nov. 28 said that might work.

“I suppose if they start delivering mail that would be more convenient,” he said, standing next to his car.

Then again, things are different out here. Kaufman, who came from Ohio via Seattle, bought a house in town a year and a half ago and just moved into it.

“In Seattle it doesn’t seem like someone would interview you while going to open a P.O. box,” he said.

The Postal Service estimates that a closed Malden location would mean a 10-year savings of $572,291.

A breakdown of their estimates includes $24,834 in utilities, $1,454 in transportation, $664,681 in labor, $40,621 in rent and $1,000 in Relocation One-Time Cost.

Malden resident Nicholas Backman doesn’t buy it.

“The walk-in revenue of the Malden Post Office is more than sufficient to cover the costs of operating the building and provide a profit,” Backman said. “Closure of this office could potentially result in a loss in excess of $51,401 instead of a savings.”

Backman notes that the Postal Service’s total 10-year savings is less than the labor cost. He points out that installation and maintenance of cluster-box units is not listed, nor is walk-in revenue.

Backman sees a disparity.

“If you take the 10-year average walk-in revenue from their numbers, which is $118,310, then subtract the 10 operating costs of $66,909, that leaves a total profit from walk-in revenue of $51,401, prior to paying labor,” he said.

Malden mayor Ted Maxwell said it is all a moot point.

“It’s obvious that the whole world is going broke so this is no surprise,” he said.

Maxwell himself is retired from the post office, where he worked from 1970 to 2001 in San Diego, Clarkston and Lewiston.

“Obviously, you can’t have a person an hour a day throwing box section mail and seeing an occasional customer coming in to buy a stamp,” Maxwell said. “It doesn’t pencil out. There’s a lot of people upset about it, but with the post office, with welfare or with my pension check, a lot of things have to be reduced and this is just the first round.”

Shannon Roe, a two-year city councilwoman, thinks somewhat otherwise.

“They didn’t notify the farmers outside the area and then having the meeting at 4:30 in the afternoon; there were some things that didn’t seem right,” Roe said. “Like the decision has already been made.”

Backman contends that there is another factor in the proposal to close Malden.

In 2008, the town received a $671,000 USDA Community Connect grant to bring fast internet service to Malden. The service went online this spring, along with installation of 10 free access computers at the library.

“We are now posed to join the internet economy and stimulate growth here in town,” Backman said. “Closure of the post office would undermine the intentions of this USDA grant. Don’t knock us down after the USDA has spent $671,000 in stimulus money to lift us up.”

Whether for business or correspondence and other services, residents like what they have in their post office.

“I think they should leave it open,” said Diana Totten, arriving in another of the morning’s cars Nov. 28. “It’s where I get my mail, my money orders, my stamps. Couldn’t they at least have it open part-time?”

Patsy Haulet, a resident of 17 years said she doesn’t like it either.

“I don’t know what I’ll do,” she said. “I know I won’t be running to Rosalia, if my car breaks down again, I’m stuck.”

“Everybody’s gonna get their turn to be upset, I suppose,” Mayor Maxwell said.

If the post office is closed, the question will turn to what will happen with the leased building, built in 1909.

“Well, it’s already falling down, so,” Maxwell said.

“I think it would be a real disaster to close the post office,” said Ed Garretson, archivist for the Whitman County Historical Society. “It’s the only place in town where people can really interact with each other. And they do, it’s evident from just spending an hour there observing. I’m not so sure it could be saved forever but for the older people it would really be discomforting.”

One potential compromise was brought up at the Oct. 5 meeting by Whitman County Library director Kristie Kirkpatrick.

The concept of a “village post office” has recently been introduced, which is when an existing business takes on a contract for basic postal services, first class stamps, and flat rate priority postage, envelopes and boxes. A village post office opened in August at Malone, near Olympia. Located in a mini-mart, the proprietors are paid $2,000 a year. The services they offer are less than a traditional contract postal service location, which are seen around the country in pharmacies and other small businesses.

Another proposal to save the Postal Service money is the notion to quit delivering on Saturdays. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe has asked Congress to consider this, which would require its approval. The move is projected to save $3 billion a year.

In figures just released, the U.S. Postal Service lost $5.1 billion in fiscal year 2011.

The address for comments on the Malden Post office is: District Discontinuance Center, Seattle PFC, 415 First Avenue North, Seattle, 98109-9998.

“Right now we’re hoping that it survives,” said Kish.

“Hippies Use Back Door – No Exceptions” an old sign reads, hung over a maroon and beige paisley sheet blocking out the window of a locked door.