Thirteen Bay Area post offices, including five in San Francisco, have been notified they are being eyed for closure, a U.S. Postal Service representative said Tuesday.
The post offices were notified that the Postal Service would begin a pre-proposal stage, which will review every aspect of the site, including community impact, proximity to other post offices and frequency of use, to decide if the individual outlets will be placed under consideration for discontinuation.
A decision on any site will not be made until after December, according to the USPS. If a site is placed under consideration, it will enter a 60-day proposal period in which the USPS will hold community meetings hear and address customers' concerns.
"We meet them face-to-face, get a feel for the reaction," USPS
spokesman Augustine Ruiz said.
After two 60-day periods, the USPS will make a decision on whether to recommend a site for discontinuation. There are at least seven Bay Area sites that had been recommended for closure prior to these 13 being announced, including two in Oakland and in San Jose.
Ruiz said she is conscious of the community impact the closures could have.
"By closing a particular post office, we have to make sure we give access (to our services)," Ruiz said.
For this reason, the USPS is setting up Village Post Offices which will provide services similar to those offered by the current offices but at third party locations such as grocery stores or pharmacies.
The San Francisco offices in danger are the Federal Building, Civic Center, Visitation Station (Visitation Valley), Bayview and McLaren offices. The Byron Rumford and Eastmont stations in Oakland along with the Colonnade station in San Jose also are candidates.
The San Mateo County sites are the Loma Mar, San Gregorio, Colma and Linden post offices. Yountville's Veterans Home post office is Solano County's lone site on the list.
--Bay City News
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