Postal Customers’ Stamping Ground in Rolling Hills Estates Threatened : Quaint facility occupying back of store shows declining revenue, U.S. officials say.

Neighborhood postman Jerry Morgan weighs packages on a manual scale and uses longhand addition to tally stamp purchases at the antiquated Rolling Hills General Store and Post Office.

The 66-year-old postal veteran has worked here for 15 years, ever since he retired from the U.S. Postal Service, and runs the post office with a know-your-neighbor friendliness.

At the general store, actually an equestrian supply shop and deli sandwiched between the sprawling green pastures and trademark white fences that distinguish Rolling Hills Estates, the clerks are on a first-name basis with their customers and regularly answer the telephone calls of worried mothers who ring up the store to find out whether their kids arrived safely on the school bus that stops outside. Even the old hitching post out front still gets some use.

The main business at the store has changed over the decades--it’s been a butcher shop, a beauty parlor, a gift shop and a market--but for the past 70 years, it has always been called the General Store and for 45 years it has included the post office.

Now the U.S. Postal Service wants to change that. It recently informed owner Pauline Becker that her lease on the postal office won’t be renewed when it expires in March because the operation generates too little money to justify its expense. The agency leases the space from Becker, who in turn pays Morgan’s salary and runs the substation.

“The post office has served the community for almost 50 years,” Becker said. “Closing it down will be a real loss to the residents here.”

Postal officials report that for several years the contract post office has not met the financial criteria needed to stay open. Spokesman Larry Dozier said revenue at the small office has continued to decline and the station is no longer needed.

Residents here disagree sharply with that assessment. To them, the post office is a sort of city landmark, a place of community spirit and old-fashioned charm. In addition, many say they don’t want to trek up the hill to the main Peninsula post office where the lines are long.

In an effort to save the post office, residents are passing around a petition. They’ve collected more than 400 signatures and hope to have 1,000 in a few weeks.

“I don’t know what I’ll do if they close,” said 50-year customer Pixie Breitenstein, who stopped in to sign the petition last week. “I don’t drive much anymore so I don’t know if I’d be able to get up there [to the main post office].”

This isn’t the first time the old post office, located in the back of the store, has been threatened with closure. About 1 1/2 years ago, Becker received a notice that said officials were considering shutting it down. She collected nearly 1,100 signatures on a petition, and the postal service dropped the matter for awhile.

Morgan suspects that the postal service hoped that the signatures would reflect an increase in revenue. But revenue and the steady flow of about 100 customers per day never increased.

Though Becker plans to close up the postal end of the business on March 5, the day her 60-day notice expires, equestrian shop owner Karen Savich is looking for revenue ideas that might make postal officials reconsider their plans. So far, she has been unsuccessful.

“Right now it’s too expensive to keep it open,” Dozier said. “And now that stamps are available by mail, phone, fax and ATM we don’t need to have as many physical facilities as we had in the past.”

For residents on the peninsula, however, the easy availability of stamps is not the main issue.

“It’s like the old days here,” said 37-year customer Nancy McDonough of Rolling Hills Estates, “and we don’t want to give that up.”