Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack

New Indio post office plans unveiled
Denise Goolsby • The Desert Sun • February 21, 2008

A long-awaited and highly anticipated new post office is signed, sealed and soon-to-be delivered to Indio. Preliminary details for the city's second post office - a $6 million project scheduled to break ground in September - were announced Wednesday.



Details won't be finalized until the city's residents weigh in on the plans at a March 3 community meeting.

The site of the new post office - yet to be determined - will most likely be the center of the discussion.

A proposed location, between Monroe and Jackson streets and Avenue 50 and 52, near the city's southeastern border, has received a lukewarm response from some.

"They've got to put the post office where it's convenient for the majority of the residents, not give another post office to La Quinta," said Rick Diaz, vice president of the city's planning commission. "That makes three for them and a half of one for us. They've got to give that a second look."

Lydia Tapia, who was visiting the Indio post office on Wednesday, said the new facility should be built in north Indio.

"The community on that side can go there and the community on this side can come here," she said.

With only one post office serving the valley's largest city, officials desperately desired a new one.

Plans are to keep the current post office after the new building opens. The new facility will become the Indio Main Post Office.

The planned 11,000-square-foot facility will include a post office box lobby with at least 2,000 post office boxes, a retail lobby with four service counter positions, a mail carrier workspace and a 30- to 50-space parking lot, said postal service spokesman Mike Cannone.

The current post office, at 45-805 Fargo St., is scheduled to be remodeled and will remain the cornerstone of the downtown business district, said Indio Mayor Lupe Ramos Watson.

Dedicated in 1964 during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration, the current post office processes about 175,000 pieces of mail and flats (magazines) per day.

During the announcement, Ramos Watson and City Manager Glenn Southard praised Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack, R-Palm Springs, for her efforts to bring the new post office to the city.

Bono Mack said the process has been challenging, especially since there had been a moratorium on new post offices.

"It was really a decade of work," said Bono Mack, who first toured the Indio post office when she was a freshman congresswoman.

The request to fund the project was inserted in an appropriations bill.

"We finally saw a crack and went for it," she said.

Bono Mack praised the city's tenacity in getting the message across to their congresswoman.

Just about every conversation with city officials in the past few years included reminders about Indio's need for another post office.

It was definitely a case of the squeaky wheel getting the grease, she said.

"I think I learned a lesson from your leaders about how to get things done," Bono Mack said.

"We're just happy to hear that they heard our cries and are responding the the needs of the people," said Ramos Watson.

The new post office is expected to open in fall-winter of 2009.