Postal Service to return to town of Bolinas after more than 2 years
For more than two years, residents of the little Marin County town of Bolinas have had to go to great lengths to get their daily mail after the local post office shut down. But now, thanks to a grassroots effort, it looks like the Postal Service is coming back to Bolinas.
There are some mailboxes on the street in Bolinas, but most people don't get delivery to their homes. That's why the closure of the local post office was such a big deal.
"And as a result, for two years and three months, we've been having to drive to either Olema, which is a 40-minute-plus round-trip drive, or Stinson Beach to pick up our mail," said local activist John Borg.
Everyone in town knows exactly how long it's been because of a sign on the main road into town listing "days without a Bolinas post office."
It is updated every day by Borg and now reads "807." But now, at the top of the sign is a cause for hope: "We did it, Bolinas! New post office opening by fall 2025."
A deal has been struck to reopen the facility in the same building it occupied for more than 60 years.
"It essentially, on paper, is a done deal," Borg said. "But in this day and age, we're not going to spike the ball until the doors open."
The problem started as a lease dispute between postal officials and the building owner and things got pretty heated. So, with no other commercial buildings in town that would work, the Postal Service packed up and left.
"The Postal Service said, 'We're never moving back to that place.' And the owner said, 'We're never having the Postal Service back,'" Borg said. "And there wasn't really anyone that was in the middle to say, 'Hey, wait a minute. Let's work this out.'"
Enter Kent Khtikian, the local retired attorney who became the unofficial negotiator for the town. He got the building owner to agree to take the post office back, but the Postal Service wasn't budging.
"The people at the ultimate decision-making level had decided they weren't going to come back here at all...ever."
So Khtikian quietly got to work in a Godfatherly way.
"To make a proposal to the post office that they couldn't refuse, right?" he said with a smile. "That's what it was. It was a proposal they couldn't refuse."
He negotiated some very favorable lease rates at the same time the community was applying pressure, writing thousands of letters and holding rallies and monthly meetings. Suddenly, the idea of moving back didn't seem so bad after all.
"We're a small town with no elected officials," Borg said. "Citizens were able to bring the two parties together. It was not initiated by the Postal Service. Not initiated by the building owner. We brought them together."
And, now, in a few months, Bolinas will get its post office back.
"We love our post office. It's an important part of our community," Borg said. "So, it's kind of crazy that it's back to where it started but we'll take it."
The activists said they are astonished they were able to negotiate the deal in light of all the current upheaval at the Postal Service and the threatened cutbacks by the federal government.
It will take some time to rebuild the facility, but as evidence that the town holds no hard feelings, they've already erected a sign thanking USPS for rebuilding their post office. Or is that just another part of an offer that can't be refused?
