New contract awarded for Settlers Bay post office

(Updated Thursday, Dec. 11)

KNIK-FAIRVIEW — After nearly 90 days of disrupted mail service, box holders at the Settlers Bay post office are about to get some relief.

The facility is scheduled to reopen Monday with full retail and mail delivery service, according to Dawn Peppinger, manager of marketing for the postal service’s Alaska district.

Peppinger added that box holders will be able to start picking up mail at the facility as early as Saturday morning.

The contract to reopen the site — Knik Contract Postal Unit #2 as it’s officially known — was awarded Dec. 3 to Valley resident Giovanna Rossi, who is now racing the clock to get the facility up and running in the teeth of the holiday rush.

“We are working as quickly as we can to ready the building to reopen,” Rossi wrote in an email. “All boxes will be the same, customers will still have the same credit as before and no addresses will need to be changed.”

Box holders will be able to use the same key, as the locks have not been changed, according to the postal service. The facility has around 1,700 boxes.

Peppinger said that due to the need to move mail from the main Wasilla Post Office to Settlers Bay, delivery to Settlers Bay customers at the Wasilla location will stop at noon Friday. Mail will then be available for postal box customers at Settlers Bay from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. Saturday.

“For this Saturday only, there will be no retail service (at Settlers Bay) but parcel pickup will be available during normal Saturday hours,” Peppinger wrote in a Wednesday press release.

“Retail hours will remain the same — 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday.”

The opening comes some three months after an abrupt closure of the facility Sept. 18 by the U.S. Postal Service, which cited an investigation into allegations of mail delivery delays. In the wake of the closure, all the mail was removed from the facility, as were the boxes. The postal service also canceled the contract administered by homebuilder Chuck Spinelli, who owns the building near Mile 8 of Knik-Goose Bay Road.

John Masters, assistant special agent in charge for the USPS Office of Inspector General’s western area, said his office presented its findings to the United States Attorney’s Office in Anchorage at the end of October.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Retta Randall said Tuesday that the investigation was ongoing and her office could offer no further comment regarding the case.

The Settlers Bay facility was previously managed by Nina Vignola and a staff of one full-time and two part-time clerks, who served an area of booming population growth in the last 10 years. Spinelli said that when he took on the contract in 2003, the facility had 600 boxes.

“Now it’s almost to 2,000 boxes. We just kept expanding over the years,” Spinelli said, adding that both he and Vignola felt the staff needed to address that growth wasn’t being reflected in the USPS contract.

After the closure, Vignola applied Oct. 18 to the USPS to become a commercial mail receiving agency — or CMRA — essentially a private post office. Spinelli gave her a lease in the existing building, and Vignola opened the doors to sign up interested box holders looking to be part of the new business while the application was pending.

The USPS also opened the bidding for a new contract during that time, and both Vignola and Spinelli said there was some confusion with the postal service over whether Vignola could have applied for the contract after submitting the private post office application.

“First I was told I couldn’t bid the contract because I was part of the investigation, then later I was told I could, but it was too late,” due to the bidding deadline, said Vignola, who took over as manager of the facility in the summer of 2003. The office opened under contract in 2001, according to the postal service.

Still, Vignola said she had the lease and was hopeful the CMRA would come though.

“I still haven’t heard one way or another on the CMRA application,” she said Wednesday. “But I still have an interest in starting a private post office in the area.”

She gave up the facility lease at the end of November.

“It has been a frustrating three months,” Vignola said. “I loved that job. I just wish I could have been given the chance to address anyone’s concerns over mail delivery.”

The post office was largely vacant on Tuesday afternoon. Ed Bradfield pulled up to read a typed note taped to the front door informing patrons of the new contract. He said he has had a box at the Settlers Bay facility since 2000.

Bradfield said he figures it has been a tough stretch for most box holders since the September closure. He said the wait time at the downtown Wasilla facility hasn’t eased much despite the added staff and other accommodations.

“I am hopeful that they can get up and running soon,” Bradfield said. “Because it’s only going to get worse as it gets closer to Christmas.”

Contact reporter Steven Merritt at 352-2269 or steven.merritt@frontiersman.com