The Postal Service still doesn’t have a plan to reopen the post office in the small Imperial Valley town of Niland, which has been shuttered for more than two years.
In a letter earlier this month, Postal Service officials said their current landlord in Niland decided not to make repairs, and negotiations with another prospective landlord — the local school district — haven’t panned out. Officials are still looking for an alternative location.
“I regret my response could not be more substantive, but it reflects all the information available at this time,” wrote Postal Service government liaison Jennifer Selde. “Please be assured that we share your interest in the return of normal operations.”
U.S. Senators Alex Padilla and Laphonza Butler had set a deadline of July 12 for the agency to produce a reopening plan for the Niland office.
They said the closure was part of a pattern of a lack of federal support for post offices in rural California.
Residents in Niland have been cut off from daily access to the mail since the local post office burned down in 2022. That forced some people to drive 50 miles to pick up their mail and delayed deliveries of medication and crucial documents to a mostly low-income community.
Community leaders in Niland have been fighting to restore full service in the town, prompting Padilla and Butler’s calls for a reopening plan.
The senators also asked USPS to release a plan to reopen another rural post office in Bolinas, a small town in Marin County, which closed last March after a dispute between USPS and the building’s landlord.
In the agency’s letter, USPS spokesperson Selde said they have made an offer that would reopen the Bolinas Post Office and are waiting for a response.
Selde also wrote that emergency suspensions of post offices are not a rare occurrence.
“When a suspension occurs, alternative service is provided as quickly as possible, and a plan of action for a permanent solution is developed,” the letter read. “Such plans can result in the reopening of the suspended facility or the establishment of a new facility.”
“However,” Selde added, “They can also result in a decision to propose the discontinuance of the suspended Post Office.”
Selde did not say whether the Postal Service was considering permanently discontinuing the Post Office in Niland.
