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Eight months after it appeared to be a timely Christmas gift, the latest idea involved with the post office project in Incline Village has struggled to move forward.
The Bonanza reported in a Dec. 19, 2007 story, citing various local and United States Postal Service officials, that new plans were announced to construct a 4,100-square-foot satellite facility that would complement the current post office at the Village Center.
However, because of the nation’s sluggish economy, the U.S. Postal Service has had to suspend its work on a number of lower-priority projects, said USPS Spokeswoman Theresa Rudkin. The Incline Village post office project is on that list, she said.
“Unfortunately, because of the economy, those projects are in a holding pattern right now until the next fiscal year,” Rudkin said. “It’s unfortunate, but whatever has been deemed a lower priority — in this case, this project has — is waiting until we reassess them.”
The Postal Service fiscal year runs from Oct. 1-Sept. 30. Once October rolls around, USPS officials will reassess those lower-priority projects to determine which ones can move forward.
“It might not be right on Oct. 1, but sometime in October,” she said.
The post office project has been on the district’s radar for years, and after many ups and downs, it appeared the 4,100 square-foot building option was the best solution.
However, after plans were announced in December, no new action has taken place, including a pair of no-shows early this year at Incline Village General Improvement District Board of Trustees and Citizens Advisory Board meetings from the project’s chief representative from the Postal Service.
“I’ve heard absolutely nothing about it since they (USPS officials) came to see me late last year,” said IVGID General Manager Bill Horn. “They had the money, but I haven’t heard anything since.”
Horn met with USPS officials, including Rudkin, on Dec. 10 to discuss the plan’s preliminaries.
Garry Mattox, the real estate specialist with the Postal Service in charge of the project, was supposed to participate in a phone call during the Jan. 30 IVGID Board of Trustees meeting and the Feb. 6 CAB meeting, updating each board on the new plan, but the phone calls never occurred.
Prior to the Jan. 30 meeting, Mattox said the smaller satellite office would serve as a new home for Incline post office boxes. That would ease safety hazards, Mattox said, considering the boxes’ current location, which are a few parcels away from the main post office in the Village Center.
“Where the PO boxes are now, the elevation is very unsafe,” Mattox said in a Jan. 30 Bonanza story. “It’s dangerous for pushing and pulling mail to and from the P.O. boxes.”
In the same story, when asked if this newest post office plan will see fruition, Mattox replied: “We believe so.”
The post office project has been an on-again, off-again project in Incline Village for about a decade. Prior to December’s news, the project lay dormant since summer 2006, when construction plans for a 19,000-square-foot facility were put on hold when two of the three parcels the USPS acquired to build a new facility were sold back to the original landowner.
Earlier in 2006, the project received another setback when the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency removed the project’s building permit after it said the post office did not meet requisite traffic impact study requirements. The project, at the time proposed to be built on a U.S. Postal Service-owned 1.34-acre parcel on Tanager Street and Incline Way, was scrutinized by TRPA staff in 2005 because it fell 18 parking spaces short of the 41 required by the agency’s traffic impact report, the story read.
The Bonanza reported in a Dec. 19, 2007 story, citing various local and United States Postal Service officials, that new plans were announced to construct a 4,100-square-foot satellite facility that would complement the current post office at the Village Center.
However, because of the nation’s sluggish economy, the U.S. Postal Service has had to suspend its work on a number of lower-priority projects, said USPS Spokeswoman Theresa Rudkin. The Incline Village post office project is on that list, she said.
“Unfortunately, because of the economy, those projects are in a holding pattern right now until the next fiscal year,” Rudkin said. “It’s unfortunate, but whatever has been deemed a lower priority — in this case, this project has — is waiting until we reassess them.”
The Postal Service fiscal year runs from Oct. 1-Sept. 30. Once October rolls around, USPS officials will reassess those lower-priority projects to determine which ones can move forward.
“It might not be right on Oct. 1, but sometime in October,” she said.
The post office project has been on the district’s radar for years, and after many ups and downs, it appeared the 4,100 square-foot building option was the best solution.
However, after plans were announced in December, no new action has taken place, including a pair of no-shows early this year at Incline Village General Improvement District Board of Trustees and Citizens Advisory Board meetings from the project’s chief representative from the Postal Service.
“I’ve heard absolutely nothing about it since they (USPS officials) came to see me late last year,” said IVGID General Manager Bill Horn. “They had the money, but I haven’t heard anything since.”
Horn met with USPS officials, including Rudkin, on Dec. 10 to discuss the plan’s preliminaries.
Garry Mattox, the real estate specialist with the Postal Service in charge of the project, was supposed to participate in a phone call during the Jan. 30 IVGID Board of Trustees meeting and the Feb. 6 CAB meeting, updating each board on the new plan, but the phone calls never occurred.
Prior to the Jan. 30 meeting, Mattox said the smaller satellite office would serve as a new home for Incline post office boxes. That would ease safety hazards, Mattox said, considering the boxes’ current location, which are a few parcels away from the main post office in the Village Center.
“Where the PO boxes are now, the elevation is very unsafe,” Mattox said in a Jan. 30 Bonanza story. “It’s dangerous for pushing and pulling mail to and from the P.O. boxes.”
In the same story, when asked if this newest post office plan will see fruition, Mattox replied: “We believe so.”
The post office project has been an on-again, off-again project in Incline Village for about a decade. Prior to December’s news, the project lay dormant since summer 2006, when construction plans for a 19,000-square-foot facility were put on hold when two of the three parcels the USPS acquired to build a new facility were sold back to the original landowner.
Earlier in 2006, the project received another setback when the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency removed the project’s building permit after it said the post office did not meet requisite traffic impact study requirements. The project, at the time proposed to be built on a U.S. Postal Service-owned 1.34-acre parcel on Tanager Street and Incline Way, was scrutinized by TRPA staff in 2005 because it fell 18 parking spaces short of the 41 required by the agency’s traffic impact report, the story read.
