Postal Service plans to make room for mail

Truckee’s post office is looking to double in size — and that may mean moving from downtown.

With about 7,800 square feet of space in the downtown office, and 3,800 square feet in the office on Deerfield Drive, U.S. Postal Service officials say they are running out of room. Now that Truckee is at the top of a five-year waiting list for new facilities, the Postal Service is on the hunt for between 19,000 and 21,000 square feet of space to combine both offices.

“Currently we don’t have enough parking for our customers, there are not enough P.O. boxes, and as we increase our routes we need more room for that,” said Terry James, Truckee’s acting postmaster. “We can’t fit too much more before we’re sitting on boxes.”

Garry Mattox, real estate specialist for the Postal Service, said in a presentation to town council Thursday that Truckee’s office has four options: making due at the current location, expanding the current location, moving to another existing building or building a new office.

The Postal Service leases the building it uses on downtown Truckee.

“We know the answer to the first, we can’t make due,” Mattox said. “In two weeks we will know if we can or cannot expand, but I anticipate we can’t expand.”

This leaves moving, he said, and the Postal Service will need to come up with a plan by Sept. 30 of this year to hold onto funding for the move.

But not everybody likes the idea of the post office leaving downtown Truckee.

Council member Josh Susman said in past discussions of moving the post office, there had been mention of leaving some sort of post office presence downtown.

Kappy Mann with the Truckee Donner Chamber of Commerce also urged the Postal Service to consider keeping at least part of their operations downtown to maintain the small town character.

James said the Postal Service could maintain a window unit downtown, or a downtown business could incorporate a contract postal unit, to keep a presence on Commercial Row.

Stefanie Olivieri, president of the Truckee Downtown Merchants Association, asked if the Postal Service would have to meet local building standards if they construct a new building.

As a federal entity, Town Manager Tony Lashbrook said the Postal Service does not have to, but Mattox said they work to reflect local character.

“The architects would bring their design to the town to get input on the exterior — to make sure the post office blends in,” Mattox said.

Tahoe Vista's troubles Truckee’s post office is not the only area mail delivery office struggling with overcrowding — and seeking more space. Postal officials have also nominated the cramped and crowded post office in Tahoe Vista for renovation. At its current location at the intersection of National Avenue and Highway 28, the post office’s quarters provide boxes for 454 residents. But the Postal Service needs room for an additional 200 boxes, at minimum, to meet the increased demands of a growing community, said Ellie Waller, Tahoe Vista’s relief postmaster, in an interview in November of last year. A package outlining the facility’s current state and any recommended improvements will be presented to district officials for approval by this October. If the district, which encompasses the state of Nevada and the Tahoe Basin, approves the report, the site assessment will be reviewed by postal officials who oversee operations in 17 Western states. After that, national officials may need to give the improvements further approval. “We have lots of facilities and a limited amount of money to spend on them,” said Teresa Rudkin, spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service in November. “We often have to prioritize them and choose the ones that need the most amount of repair.”