Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Scheer

Rosalind Griffith (left) shares a laugh with Marty Schaefer, clerk at the postal annex at the Fernwood Florist.

Post office substation in Quito will stay

Florist says she was running annex in the red

By Sarah Lombardo

Thanks to an offer last Monday by the U.S. Postal Service, Jan Cheung has decided to let the postal annex remain in her shop--the Fernwood Florist in theQuito Shopping Center. The substation has been located there for about six years

Cheung told the Saratoga News that she had been running the office at a deficit. Unless the Postal Service agreed to foot more of the bill, she planned to close the substation on March 15.

"Rents have gone up, employee wages have gone up," Cheung said. "I was running the post office in the red."

The USPS pays a flat yearly fee to merchants who house postal substations. Cheung said in the six years she has run the substation, the USPS has only raised that fee once, from $28,000 to $32,000.

But that raise was about four years ago, and since then, Cheung said, her costs have exceeded the $32,000 payment she gets from the USPS.

The March 15 deadline Cheung gave postal officials was an extension of Cheung's first deadline, which would have closed down the substation in November. At that time, having reached no agreement on a fee increase, Cheung extended her deadline so that customers of her post office would not be inconvenienced before the holidays.

Carolyn Black, USPS officer in charge in Saratoga, said that negotiations had been ongoing with Cheung and pointed out that it was Cheung who gave the deadline for closure.

"I would like to keep the contract station functioning because it has a long record of providing good service," Black said last week, but she added that the decision whether to grant Cheung a raise was no longer in local hands.

Cheung heard from the area station on Monday that she would get an increase of $250 monthly.

"It's not a whole lot, but it's something," theflorist said.

Many Saratoga residents, aware of the pending closure expressed their concern to the Saratoga News last week.

"I would miss this post office," resident Doris Ball said, adding that she uses the Quito post office because the service is better, even though the main Saratoga post office on Allendale is closer to her home.

Twain Court resident Jean Pugh said she finds the Quito substation much more convenient than the main office or the Saratoga Avenue office because of its location in the Quito Shopping Center.

And resident Melodie Nelson said she not only finds the Quito office more convenient but thinks its closure could pose problems for the main office, which she said already suffers from long lines and long waits at the counter.

"I think [employees at the main post office] have their hands full," she said. "So now we're going to put [the Quito closure] on top of that?"

Nelson also said that the closure of the Quito office would take away from some of Saratoga's charm.

"Really, it just gets back to Saratoga and the feel of a small community," she said, "and that's what that little shopping center and that post office has."

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