Meiners Oaks : Postal Officials Consider Substation

U.S. Postal Service officials are deciding whether to open a new postal substation after the current contractor closes shop Aug. 10.

Caroline and Calvin Rush, who have operated a postal window out of their television sales and repair business on El Roblar Drive for five years, are moving to a Ventura business park.

Felice Cook, marketing director for the postal region, said the decision to award a window contract to a private business will be based on the amount of revenue expected from its operation and whether officials believe that the service could be absorbed by the Ojai and Oak View post offices.

If a new contract is approved, bidding is expected to take six months before it would be awarded.

“It feels empty already, like something’s being taken out of our town,” said Nan Tolbert, who often rides her bicycle to the Rushes’ shop several times a week.

“We’ve had a lot of people who are very distraught about it,” Caroline Rush said. “One customer drives here from the upper Ojai because there’s no place to park downtown at the Ojai post office.”

She said she is concerned about her elderly customers who don’t drive and the immigrants who rely on her money-order service to send part of their paychecks to relatives in Mexico.

“It’s going to be a hardship on a lot of folks,” Caroline Rush said. “I probably go through 100 money orders a week.”

The Meiners Oaks substation serves about 60 customers a day, she said, and has averaged about $500 a day in postage stamp sales. According to Cook, the Rushes generated $140,000 in postal revenue during the last fiscal year.