Four post offices to stay open
Four of the five Las Vegas post offices that were being considered for closure will remain open, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Wednesday.
The announcement followed a meeting between Reid, United States Postmaster General Jack Potter and Jim Bilbray, a former Nevada Congressman and current member of the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors.
"The loss of these locations would have hurt these communities and I am pleased that Postmaster Potter and his team have decided to keep these stations open," Reid said in a statement. "Today's announcement is good news for Nevadans concerned about losing valuable services."
Only the Las Vegas Strip Station at 3100 Industrial Road, near Desert Inn Road, remains in danger of possible closure as mail volume and revenue decline.
The four stations removed from the list of possible closures are the Garside, Huntridge and King stations and the Desert Inn Retail Unit.
Residents of the historical black community of West Las Vegas will be relieved that the King Station, at 1801 N. Martin Luther King Blvd., is to remain open, said Las Vegas City Councilman Ricki Barlow.
"It gives them hope," Barlow said. "In a community where people are already struggling to make ends meet, it's a huge inconvenience to travel miles to the (next) nearest postal station."
The battle for services and equal treatment is one West Las Vegas residents have waged for decades. In 1968, members of the community marched in protest after Las Vegas threatened to wall off their neighborhood from the rest of the valley by closing D, F and H streets.
More recently, residents of the area generally bordered by Bonanza Road, Carey Avenue, Rancho Drive and Interstate 15 fought for a grocery store. They successfully opposed a recent closure of F Street beneath I-15, which many saw as a move to segregate the neighborhood from the downtown area.
And conditions at one of their neighborhood schools, West Prep Academy, is the subject of debate. The campus near Lake Mead Boulevard and Tonopah Drive houses 28 portables that contain 56 classrooms.
"It seems that as soon as we take one step forward, there's a step backward," Barlow said.
That the King Station will remain open "is going to mean a lot," he said.
The five local post offices were among 3,100 nationwide that the Postal Service is evaluating for possible consolidation with other offices. The closures would help counter a 15 percent drop in mail volume nationally and an expected $6.5 billion loss in revenue this year.
Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0285.
