End is near for post office

BURBANK — Despite thousands of signatures culled from neighborhood residents and business owners, the U.S. Postal Service is moving ahead with plans to shutter the Magnolia Park Post Office and studying whether to close the Glenoaks Station Post Office, officials said.

While a final decision has yet to be made public, the Magnolia Park office at 3810 W. Magnolia Blvd. is expected to close its doors at the end of the year and move about 1.5 miles to 2140 N. Hollywood Way. The fate of Glenoaks Station Post Office at 1634 N. San Fernando Blvd. hangs in the balance, with no precise closing date set, U.S. Postal Service spokesman Richard Maher said.

The Burbank facilities are part of a growing list of postal stations nationwide threatened by dramatic declines in business brought on by e-mail and online purchasing and shipping options.

Maher said the postal service is registering a loss of nearly $7 billion this fiscal year, despite hiking the price of stamps by 2 cents in May and removing collection boxes.

About 10% of its nearly 33,000 nationwide facilities face closure. The independent Postal Regulatory Commission last month posted a 12-page list of large post offices and connected satellites facing the ax.

Even Burbank’s main facility has yet to meet the postal service’s standards for the list.

Among the factors being examined at the Glenoaks Station Post Office are revenue, costs to run the facility, how it’s being used and proximity to neighboring stations, Maher said.

Another consideration is whether the building is owned by the post office, which in most local cases it is not, he added.

“Nobody wants their post office gone,” he said. “And this sort of shows how important post offices and stations are to communities.”

Word of Magnolia Park’s closing sent a wave of reaction through the business community, prompting owners for businesses such as Atomic Records, Cobblestone Gift & Floral and Dupli-Cat Printing to gather thousands of signatures in an effort to keep the stations operating.

“It’s your perfect neighborhood post office,” said Atomic Records owner Steve Alper, who chose the location 13 years ago in part because of its proximity to the post office. “It is the dream post office that everyone talks about, and it’s been a boon.”