MORE RUMOR CONTROL

In spite of what you may have heard, we have had NO WORD from the Postal Service that the Deer Harbor Post Office is specifically being considered for closure. EVERY rural post office across the nation is being considered for closure, including other Orcas Post Offices.

All we know for certain is that TrendWest has canceled the DH Post Office's lease, effective Feb. 2010.

Things you can do to help the Deer Harbor Post Office remain a viable entity:

1. PAY for your post office box
2. Conduct your postal business in Deer Harbor
3. If you are a Click and Ship customer, please use the Deer Harbor Zip Code
4. Try not to panic and abandon Deer Harbor in favor of the Orcas Landing or Eastsound post offices.

THANK YOU to the more than 70 volunteers who've signed up to write letters, organize packets, and send emails. And THANK YOU to the many many people who have donated a total as of today of $1700!

Support from Waldron Island

We received the following letter from the Waldron Community Chairperson:

To the Deer Harbor Save the Post Office Committee,

The Waldron Community understands the importance of a Post Office in terms of convenience, commerce and as a valuable component of local community.

We support the Deer Harbor Community's efforts to maintain their Post Office. The Waldron mail comes through the Deer Harbor Post Office and is then transferred by boat to the Waldron Post Office. Any alternative location would greatly impact the Waldron Community. It would result in much more time to transfer the mail, and it would increase fuel costs. Not only would moving the Deer Harbor Post Office create a higher cost to getting mail to Waldron, but Deer Harbor is the safest harbor on Orcas Island, and any alternative location could potentially create problems in getting mail during the winter months or in inclement weather conditions.

Thank You for your Consideration
Janice Lyons
Waldron Community Meeting Chair

RUMOR CONTROL

Please Note:
NO official announcement has been made about the closure of the Deer Harbor Post Office. Catherine Nash is the District Manager of the US Post Office, and supposedly announced in Washington DC that the Deer Harbor Post Office is slated for closure. THIS IS NOT TRUE.

We must be careful of rumors. The Postal Service has a process for closure that includes an OFFICIAL announcement, and 150 day period for the community to respond. The only announcement we have received from the Postal Service is that they are currently studying the viability of ALL rural post offices, NATIONWIDE.

Time to Write Letters to Congrressional Representatives and Postal Officials

The Committee to Save the Deer Harbor Post Office is now preparing packets of letters and mailing labels (10 per packet). These will be provided free to folks who volunteered to participate in the mail campaign. The letters can be simply signed and sent, or personalized. If you want a packet and have not signed up, call 376-6051, ask for a mailing packet, and provide your mailing address.

Some folks will prefer to write their own letters. Below are key addresses of our Congressional delegation and other addresses for the Post Office campaign. Here are key points to consider when writing to these busy people who receive hundreds of requests every day from their constituents:

State Our Case, but Keep it Brief:

• Use just a couple sentences to explain our issue. (Ex. we are an isolated rural community, the PO is our community center, and also serves two even more remote island communities, and our Post. The Post Office has lost its lease, and faces closure.)
• Rather than explain every reason the Deer Harbor PO should remain opened, choose one: It's environmentally more sensible. The PO is community center. It is not cost effective to close the PO, etc. One strong argument is more effective than a scattered approach. Since many people are writing letters, trust that all the issues will be covered.
  

State What you Would Like the Elected Representative to Do, For example:

• Contact officials at the USPS on our behalf and advocate for saving the DHPO.
• Contact the USPS officials and request that they communicat with the Save the Deer Harbor Post Office Committee.
• Contact the USPS officials and determine if the Deer Harbor Post Office has already been put on the closure list, and report back to us.

And Finally, of Course, Be Courteous:

• Ask rather than demand.
• Do not write more than one or two words in all caps. THAT IS LIKE SHOUTING.

Addresses:

The Honorable Patty Murray
United States Senate
173 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-4701
e-mail: murray.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm

The Honorable Maria Cantwell
United States Senate
511 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-4704
e-mail: cantwell.senate.gov/contact/

The Honorable Rick R. Larsen
United States House of Representatives
108 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-4702
e-mail from www.house.gov/larsen/contact/

The Honorable John E. Porter
U.S. Postmaster General/CEO
475 L'Enfant Plaza SW
Washington, DC 20260-0010
e-mail pmgceo@usps.gov

Ms. Katherine Nash, District Manager
U.S. Postal Service
P.O. Box 90400
Seattle, WA 98109-9997
e-mail: katherine.s.nash@usps.com

Office of the Secretary
U.S. Postal Regulatory Commission
901 New York Avenue NW, Suite 200
Washington, DC 20268-0001

Interesting Facts About the Deer Harbor Post Office

• Deer Harbor has had a post office since 1893.
• PAYING for your post office box is a major way you can support our Post Office.
  
• At least 45 Small Businesses rely on the Deer Harbor Post Office daily.
  
• According to ZipSkinny.com there are 165 housing units in Deer Harbor, but if all tax parcels were developed, the number of homes would triple.
  
• The Current Deer Harbor Post Office building was constructed specifically for a post office by Dave McIntyre in the 1970's.
  
• TrendWest owns the Deer Harbor Post Office building (Tax parcel 260734004000, that is a mere .08 of an acre.) The parking lot behind the post office belongs to the marina (tax parcel 260734001000, covering .49 acres.)

The Importance of Small Post Offices

The following article is from the Washington Branch of the National Association of Postmasters of US (NAPUS): The division of Retired Postmasters is very active in advising communities when their local post office is threatened with closure. The Ardenvoir PO is housed in the Cooper General Store, pictured here.

Dec. 2008, Ardenvoir PO Told They Would Be Closed
The patrons of the Ardenvoir Post Office in Eastern Washington, with its population of 200 and the rental of 74 PO Boxes received a letter in their PO Box dated Dec. 16, 2008 that stated that as of Jan. 16, 2009, all postal operations, including post office box mail delivery would be suspended at the Ardenvoir Post Office.

Retired Postmasters Help Save the PO
Upon being contracted and appraised of the impending move, a trip was made (by Retired NAPUS members) to the community to see and hear their reaction. People were very upset and wanted to know what they could do. They were given the names of key persons to contact, inclding the Seattle District Manager, their congressman and US Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell. They had a petition signed by over 100 people that they presented to some of the listed persons.

Ardenvoir A Zipless Town?
On Dec. 31, 2008, the headline story on the front page of the Wenatchee Daily World led off with "Now a Zipless Town?" It contained a picture and story about the impending suspension of services. A survey and insection of the Ardenvoir Post Office was made by selected Postal Officials. On Jan. 9,2009, a news item quietly appeared on page 2 in the Wenatchee paper stating that the Postal Service would let the Cooper General Store keep its Post Office and Ardenvoir could keep its 98111 zip!

NOTE: Our group has been in contact with the Retired Postmasters, and received helpful advice from them.

Environmental Impact of Deer Harbor Post Office Closure By Larry Coddington

First the disclaimer; I am not a scientist, however all the numbers used are pulled from practical experience . What is overwhelmingly apparent is, the loss the Deer Harbor Post Office will significantly affect the amount of fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, resulting from longer and more trips to the Post Office in Eastsound or possibly Orcas Landing .

With the help of Map Quest, I determined that:

• The mail truck goes 12 miles out of its way to bring the mail to Deer Harbor. It does this twice a day, six days a week, totaling 144 miles a week. Assuming 7 mpg, that works out to an extra 20.5 gallons per week to deliver the mail to Deer Harbor.
• There are 318 mail boxes at the Deer Harbor post office so let's pick a number of 200, assuming some patrons are part-time residents and some people have 2 boxes for business reasons If each family makes one round trip to East Sound (22 miles, 6 times a week to pick-up mail & mail packages) it becomes 132 miles by 200 residents which comes to 26,400 miles. If the average car gets 18 mpg for 26,400 miles, fuel used would be 1,466.6 gallons of gas per week.
• Of the 200 residents who presently use the post office, twenty live close enough to walk. Assuming the average round trip to the D.H. Post Office is 3 mi. for 180 residents, that's 540 miles six times a week for a total of 3,240 miles. At 18 mpg, that's 180 gallons of gas per week.
• So the present use is about 180 gallons by postal patrons, and 20.5 by the mail truck, for a total of about 200.5 gallons per week. Whereas 200 people driving to Eastsound six times a week would use 1,466.6 gallons. The difference is 1,266.1 gallons a week of potential fuel usage, if we lose the Deer Harbor Post Office. This translates to 65,832 gallons a year that would release about 1,316,640 pounds of carbon dioxide into the air.

Granted some people will car pool, and some will go to town only a couple times a week. However, it should be clear that a much larger amount of fuel would be used in addition to the amount of pollution released. We need to solve our problems without creating bigger ones. Help keep our Post Office viable, pay rent on a post office box, and choose to ship by mail whenever possible.

Thanks for giving this your consideration.

The Story So Far:

• Trend West Ends Lease with DHPO--The Deer Harbor Post Office lease with Trend West expires February, 2010, and Trend West has expressed a determination NOT to renew the lease, meaning that the Deer Harbor Post Office will have to move from its current location or close.
• Committee Forms to Find New Location--In October 2008 an informal group of community members identified four possible alternative sites for the Post Office. Two of the possibilities are existing buildings, and two are vacant building sites.
• Citizens Contact USPO Property Dept. In early November 2008, community members wrote a letter to the Property Department of the US Postal Service inviting the department to inspect the 4 sites and determine their suitability for a Post Office.
• DH Committee Informed of Rural Post Office Closures In mid-December the Property Department of the US Post Office contacted community members and stated that the viability of ALL rural post offices in the US were under review, and the review would not be completed until mid-summer 2009, so they could take no action on a new site for the Deer Harbor Post Office until that time.
  
• DHPO on a Tight Timeline--We responded that with an expiring lease, the community could not wait until mid-summer 2009 to begin the process of relocating the Post Office. We explained that the community whole-heartedly supports the continuation of a Post Office in Deer Harbor, and that the Postal Service should expect to see a vigorous campaign by the Deer Harbor community to keep the Post Office opened. We received no response to that communication.
• Congressman Larson Contacted--In early February 2009, we contacted Congressman Rick Larsen and explained our situation to him, with the hope that we could recruit his help. We have not had any response from Congressman Larson.
• Established Committee to Save DHPO--On Sunday, March 8th, the first meeting of the Committee to Save Deer Harbor Post Office was held.

Committee members are:
Howard Barbour
Larry Coddington
Mike Coughlin
Clay Parsons
Erik Smith
Norm Zimlich

Barbara Bedell has agreed to work with the Committee to put together the "Our Case" paper which may be used to explain our cause to the media, other Orcas residents, etc.

Proceedings from this meeting will be posted at a later date. Stay tuned to this blog for further updates. You can also subscribe to receive updates to your email address.