Work Begins on New Postal Annex

The foundation has been poured and the walls are going up on a 12,500-square-foot postal annex on West Telegraph Road, part of a $4.1-million project to give workers more mail-sorting space, officials said Wednesday.

The project includes remodeling the South Mill Street post office, which will begin once the annex is completed in March, said Terri Bouffiou, a U.S. Postal Service spokeswoman in Los Angeles.

Thirty-four postal workers will sort and distribute mail in the new center, which will not be open to the public. Santa Paula residents will continue to use the South Mill Street facility to buy stamps and for other postal services, Bouffiou said.

The remodeling may include adding more post office boxes, she said, but those plans are still in the works.

The 8,500-square-foot South Mill Street office has been the city’s sole post office since it was built in the early 1930s. It handles 10,200 deliveries daily.

“It it tight but not impossible,” Bouffiou said. “But we do anticipate there will be growth in that area, and we need a building that is more suitable.”

Santa Paula will still receive its mail from the Oxnard postal plant and distribution center, she said.