Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Officials don't give a zip about this dot on the map

Dear Congressman Campbell and President Clinton:

Life's too short to let little things bother us, so here's a really big issue to entertain you and your staffs regarding the 3,568 residents of Monte Sereno, CA 95030.

This may come as a shock to you, so you'd better be seated before you continue.

I feel obligated to alert you to the fact that the 95030 ZIP code is shared between Monte Sereno and Los Gatos. So, for all those geographically dysfunctional people in the universe who are using one of those new Internet directories to find Bill Ferguson of Monte Sereno and don't know that Los Gatos and Monte Sereno are joined at the hip by the post office, et al., I am a lost soul.

Yesterday I looked for myself in one of those directories, and I didn't exist (does that mean I don't have to pay taxes?) But the Bill Ferguson who doesn't live in Los Gatos was found at a nonexistent Los Gatos address.

According to the U.S. Postal Service, the phone company, mail-order companies, the power company, the IRS and even Ed McMahon and Dick Clark, Monte Sereno doesn't exist.

Granted, we have a City Council, our own tax rate, a separate contract with Los Gatos for law enforcement, our own voting precincts and a border, according to California and area maps. Rand McNally even gives us a dot on its maps. But we don't have our own ZIP code; we suffer from geographic anonymity, and you know how bad that is.

Can you imagine how disappointed I'd be if Ed McMahon was trying to find me in Los Gatos and got to the border of Monte Sereno and figured I didn't exist and I wasn't able to collect my $10 million prize?

Ya' know, I come from Maine; and ya' know, in Maine, there are towns with only a handful of people that have their own ZIP code. And here we are, all 3,568 of us, and the bureaucracy refuses us our own ZIP code? It's like not having a birthday.

I know this may not rank high on your list of priorities, with the budget and reelection and all. And I know it takes a bigger person than me to fight the bureaucracy of the U.S. Postal Service, but, I'll bet you're up to it. How about it? Do you think you can get the postal service off their collective butts and get our city listed with its own ZIP code? I'll bet my vote you can!

Bill Ferguson, Monte Sereno, 95030