The Times-Standard - Eureka post office to be dedicated for former mayor Sam Sacco

Congressman Mike Thompson, Eureka Mayor Frank Jager and 1st District Supervisor Jimmy Smith will be on hand at a ceremony today to honor former Eureka Mayor Sam Sacco when the city's main post office will officially bear his name.

Thompson and Rosemarie Fernandez, U.S. Postal Service district manager out of San Francisco, will dedicate the Eureka Main Post Office in the name of Sacco at the ceremony to begin at 2 p.m. at 337 West Clark St. Also attending will be former Eureka City Council member Tom McMurray Jr. and Sam Sacco Jr.

The post office was named after Sacco by an act of Congress authored by Thompson on Dec. 14.

Sacco was born and raised in Susanville, Calif., and moved to Eureka in 1956 with his wife Mary Beth and four children, Sam Jr., Joe, Jim and Lisa. In Eureka, Sacco opened an insurance agency and built a successful business, which he operated for the next 30 years.

Sacco served as Eureka mayor from 1975 to 1979. He was instrumental in achieving a settlement with the state of California that established property rights along the bay and paved the way for Eureka's waterfront development.

He fought for a benefits package for timber workers displaced by the expansion of Redwood National Park and was a vocal supporter of the Salvation Army's Silvercrest Senior Residence in Eureka.