Boosting the hopes of Bolinas community organizers, officials of the United States Postal Service have reviewed a citizen-led plan for a temporary post office and visited the Mesa Park site where it would be located.
On June 23, a postal service representative and a contract architect met with the plan’s three authors and the director of the Bolinas Community Public Utility District, which owns the site.
They had reviewed the plan carefully and appeared to be taking it seriously, said Aenor Sawyer, a member of the design team. “They spoke very favorably of the proposal to return the post office to Bolinas,” Ms. Sawyer said. “We were very encouraged by their visit and the level of engagement they demonstrated.”
The officials did not make any commitments but said they would take the plan back to the postal service, give it further study and propose some modifications. The plan calls for renting two trailers and adapting them to meet postal service design specifications.
In addition to Ms. Sawyer, who works as a physician at the University of California, San Francisco medical school, the design team includes Steve Matson, an architect, and Melinda Griffith, a lawyer.
“The fact that we had the meeting on the site—and they came all the way out here—was very positive and encouraging,” Mr. Matson said.
Still, Ms. Sawyer stressed that officials said procedural hurdles would have to be cleared before any plan is approved. “We look forward to continuing to work in collaboration with the post office team toward achieving a signed agreement,” she said. “Stay tuned, as that will be cause for a real Bolinas barn dance.”
Until it was abruptly closed in February after a landlord-tenant dispute, the Bolinas Post Office had served the town for 160 years. Residents must now pick up their mail in Stinson Beach, a 30-minute roundtrip journey around the Bolinas Lagoon. The trek is a hardship for elderly residents and those who don’t drive and who rely on the mail for their medications.
Since the closure, residents have launched a robust grassroots campaign to restore their mail service. With land scarce in town, they proposed a temporary office until a permanent site can be secured. Late last month, the Marin County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution endorsing the community’s efforts, and community members have bombarded the district postal service director with cards and letters.
Their efforts appear to be paying off, said John Borg, who helped coordinate the campaign. “This is an indication that all the stuff that we’ve done has now changed the trajectory of the postal service,” Mr. Borg said. “Hopefully, this is a new era of engagement.”