Minden's proposed new post office may be a victim of the economic downturn.
Town officials were notified this week that the U. S. Postal Service is "reprioritizing," and new facilities planned in Minden and Incline Village were on hold.
"We're not just picking on Minden," said David Rupert, postal service spokesman.
"We're looking at our entire operation. That includes 30,000 facilities, and hundreds of thousands of vehicles and employees. We're probably going to lose $3 billion this year, and we're trying to be prudent."
The news did not sit well with town officials or the real estate agent who has been working on the transaction for the owner of the chosen site at Monte Vista and Ironwood Drive.
"We have done everything," said Cora Hansen. "We've parceled, we have met all the specifications which seem to get more and more complicated every day."
Hansen said the property is in escrow, but she was informed that the postal service is leaning toward retaining the existing facility at Ninth Street and Highway 395 as a retail outlet, and major distribution would come from the post office in the Ranchos.
It wasn't clear what that would mean to postal box holders in Minden.
Hansen said the property owner has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars getting the 1.7-acre parcel ready.
"We've been working on this about five months nonstop," she said. "The seller is taking a huge loss by selling it to the government. He wanted to do this for the Town of Minden."
Town board member Bob Hadfield said he contacted Sen. Harry Reid's office in Reno to see what could be done.
"Nobody (from the postal service) had the courtesy to communicate with us as a town board or with the property owner who bent over backwards to get the post office.
"Everybody's got a better post office than we do, and we're the county seat. This is not the way to do business, and it's no way to treat a community," Hadfield said.
He said regional postal officials came to Minden in recent weeks and never contacted the town.
"If they have a stealth visit to the community to undermine an existing business proposition that's in escrow, they ought to have enough courage to visit the political body and get our side of it," he said.
Officials announced a new post office for Minden in January and began the search for property to accommodate an 8,020-square-foot building that would be double the size of the current structure.
The Minden site has been used as a post office since 1974.
"This post office is dangerous and inadequate. It's not befitting this community. We've got the most potential for growth because of the Park development and other things, it just totally ignores reality," Hadfield said. "Genoa has a better post office; so does the Ranchos. They're going to turn us into something like you would stick in a Walmart. It's just not right."
Rupert said a final decision had not been made.
"We're not saying it's delayed, we're not saying it's canceled. All we're doing is taking a step back and slowing the process of all our capital expenditures," he said.
Rupert said a decision would be made after Oct. 1, the beginning of the fiscal year for the postal service.
"We're trying to be as fair as possible," he said. "We're not taxpayer-funded and we have to be responsible. Our mail volume drop is unprecedented. Right now it's a dark hole we're trying to dig our way out of. Unfortunately, it means good people and worthwhile projects are going to suffer in the meantime."
