Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : New Bids May be Sought for Replacement Mail Service : Leona Valley: Area leaders say postal official agrees to request after protests, private meeting.

Community leaders here, angry over the recent closure of the town’s contract post office, said a postal official agreed Thursday to seek new bids from local businesses that want to take over the service.

The decision came after more than 100 Leona Valley residents staged a protest rally Saturday over the closure of the post office, which serves about 600 households in this rural community, just west of Palmdale. An even larger crowd expressed outrage at a town meeting Wednesday night.

That led to a closed-door meeting Thursday attended by four members of Leona Valley’s Rural Town Council, an aide to U.S. Rep. Howard P. (Buck) McKeon and Stacia Crane, manager of consumer affairs for the U.S. Postal Service’s Van Nuys District, which includes Leona Valley.

“It was a very good meeting,” said Kelly Hand, the congressman’s aide. She and two Leona Valley residents who attended the meeting said Crane promised that new bids for a contract post office will be sought.

But contacted at her office late Thursday afternoon, Crane would not confirm that plan or discuss anything that happened at the meeting. “Everything you’re bringing up is too premature to comment on,” Crane said.

Leona Valley’s postal problems began when Pat Hobart, who ran the town’s contract post office for the last 32 years, chose to retire. Postal authorities sought bids to take over the service but rejected them as too costly.

The Postal Service replaced the rental post office boxes that had been inside Hobart’s business with outdoor boxes at the town’s busiest intersection. To mail bulky packages, residents now must go to the Palmdale Post Office, a 30-mile round trip.

At Thursday’s meeting, Leona Valley Town Council members presented 800 petition signatures and 72 protest letters from residents opposed to the loss of a local post office.

“This reaches beyond economics. This reaches into people’s lives,” said Nancy Kingsbury, a 16-year resident who organized the petition drive. “Our way of life has functioned very well with our little post office. If it’s not broken, let’s not fix it.”

Mark Johnstone, president of the Town Council, said he emerged from the Thursday’s meeting with guarded optimism. The postal administrator listened to community concerns about the new outdoor location of the post office boxes and about the town’s desire for its own ZIP code, he said.