Press Democrat - Locals want to preserve downtown Ukiah post office
Proponents are collecting signatures and drumming up support while local and federal officials are challenging the secrecy of the documents on which the U.S. Postal Service based its closure proposal.
The U.S. Postal Service has refused to make public the documents used to determine that the downtown post office is a financial burden and that it should be consolidated with the post office annex located on the edge of town.
It has denied requests from citizens, media, local officials and Congressman Mike Thompson to release the information.
“The people of Ukiah deserve to know what, if any, actions they can take to save this historic building and its place in downtown Ukiah's history,” Thompson said Friday.
The current post office was built in 1937 but there has been a post office in downtown Ukiah since 1858. It moved locations more than a dozen times before settling at its current location but always remained within a few blocks of the courthouse, according to historical accounts.
Thompson said his staff is investigating the Postal Service's claim its documents on the proposed closure need not be made public.
All the Postal Service will divulge is its final cost estimates, which include claims it would cost almost $800,000 to make repairs to the 11,200-square-foot, moderne-styled building constructed of steel reinforced concrete in the 1930s. Moderne is reminiscent of an art deco style.
“It appears to be rationalized math,” said Ukiah Councilman Doug Crane, whose father helped construct the building. “Without their willingness to disclose what supports the math how can we accept or consider that math is valid in any way?”
The City Council voted last week to ask the Postal Service for permission to conduct its own evaluation of possible repairs. They also set an April 21 date for a public hearing on the proposed closure.
Postal Service spokesman James Wigdel said Friday he was not aware of the city's request to evaluate the building and cannot say whether it will be allowed.
In addition to repair costs, the Postal Service study includes data that suggests closing the downtown Ukiah office would save $186,921 annually; that the consolidation will cost $360,000; and that the historic building could be sold for $600,000, a figure officials said is grossly inflated.
The proposed closure and those of post offices across the country, including Healdsburg's downtown office, are aimed at reducing the Postal Service's annual deficit, estimated at $8.5 billion.
The repairs the Postal Service says are needed at the Ukiah post office include replacement of the electrical, heating and fire alarm systems and the roof, which is copper.
Wigdel said Ukiah citizens opposed to the post office relocation should consider the larger picture. The location on Orchard Avenue is more modern and easier to access by people who don't live in the downtown area.
“It's a nice facility that will fit in with the entire community,” Wigdel said. He said the murals in the downtown post office, “Resources of Soil” painted by Benjamin Cunningham in 1937 as part of the federal public works of art project, will be preserved. Cunningham's murals also grace Coit Tower in San Francisco.
Downtown post office supporters worry that closing the post office will have a devastating impact on downtown, where it serves as a community gathering place and an economic draw.
Thompson said he sympathizes:
“The building doesn't just serve as a post office. It's a community gathering place and a physical link between Ukiah's past and present,” he said.