$4.5-Million Santa Clarita Post Office Opens Today

A $4.5-million post office will open in Santa Clarita today, an uncommon occurrence at a time when federal budget cuts have put most such construction projects on hold, U.S. Postal Service officials say.

John Conte, a spokesman for the Postal Service, said the new Santa Clarita Main Post Office, which replaces a smaller, 26-year-old facility in Saugus, escaped elimination under an omnibus budget-cutting bill that in January chopped $1.2 billion in Postal Service funds.

“We’re fortunate that this one was already under construction when that act was passed,” Conte said. “We escaped that omnibus ax.”

Other communities seeking added services have not been so fortunate, he said, adding that the budget cuts scaled back or put on hold 74% of the Postal Service’s building projects nationwide.

In the San Fernando Valley, that meant postponement of a Tarzana post office and elimination of Saturday service at seven other post offices.

17 Projects on Hold

In the Postal Service division that serves the Santa Clarita and San Fernando valleys--an area stretching from Pasadena to Santa Barbara--17 of 33 construction projects were put on hold by the budget cuts, Conte said.

In Santa Clarita, the new office at 24355 Creekside Road will bring much-needed expansion of mail service to a rapidly growing valley, Conte said. It joins two other post offices in the community.

At 36,151 square feet, the new post office is more than four times as large as the old facility on Bouquet Canyon Road in Saugus.

The office offers 2,293 post office boxes; the old office had 600. Whereas the former facility had 10 parking spaces, the new one has 60.

Business hours at the office will be 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday.

Conte said the office will serve 70,000 residents in Saugus and Valencia and will deliver mail to 22,000 homes and 1,500 businesses.

Vanishing Saugus

At least one Santa Clarita resident is sorry to see the old postal facility go.

Cynthia Neal-Harris, a member of the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society board, said the Saugus Post Office’s official closing on Saturday signified the loss of another symbol of the community’s identity.

Other than Saugus High School and the famous Saugus Cafe, few landmarks still bear the community’s name, she said. And the 101-year-old Saugus Station, once Southern Pacific’s division headquarters in Southern California, isn’t even in Saugus anymore.

It was moved to William S. Hart Park in Newhall 8 years ago and is now a railroad museum.

“Everything’s gone,” Neal-Harris lamented.

The demise of the Saugus Post Office, however, does not portend an end to the Saugus postmark. Residents can still get that at a tiny mail station that will continue to operate inside Saugus Drugs on Bouquet Canyon Road, Conte said.