OJAI : Post Office Accepts New Lease Schedule

The U. S. Postal Service is keeping a promise to lease the Ojai Post Office at market rates for the next five to 11 years, officials said Friday.

A rent dispute, which lasted most of 1990 and prompted city officials to seek help from congressmen and the postmaster general, has ended with a new contract, said Jack Fay, president of the Ojai Civic Assn.

“We’re very happy that negotiations resulted in a rent that is more in line with the going market rate,” Fay said, crediting City Manager Andrew S. Belknap, Rep. Robert J. Lagomarsino (R-Ventura) and Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) for their intervention in negotiations.

The nonprofit association has leased the landmark bell-tower building in the heart of Ojai to the U. S. Postal Service since 1917. It uses the rent to make improvements to city-owned Libbey Park next door.

After the Postal Service’s attempt to move its operations to a larger building in 1987, it agreed to enter a long-term lease at fair market rates. But when postal officials offered last year to pay only $56,600 each of the next 11 years, the association refused, citing no allowance for inflation.

The Ojai City Council called the offer an outrage and received a promise from the postmaster general’s office in July that the agency would continue to negotiate for fair market rates.

Under the new contract, the Postal Service will pay $56,600 until 1992, when the rent will go up to $58,298 through 1994.

It then has a three-year option to continue renting the building for $60,047 until 1998, followed by another three-year option at $61,848.

The civic association has contributed $80,000 this year for a new multipurpose building near completion in Libbey Park. Next year, Fay said, the rent will finance a parking lot near the lower tennis courts.