Marin County community gets its post office back after nearly 1,000 days
There was a great celebration on Monday in the Marin County community of Bolinas as mail was being delivered to their town again, thanks to one man's persistence and just a touch of public shaming.
On Feb. 4, 2023, the Bolinas post office, which had operated in a building on Brighton Avenue for 60 years, shut down over a lease dispute with the property owner, planning never to return. After that, residents had to make a 40-minute round-trip trek to another town to pick up their mail.
"We're a small town," said resident John Borg. "We have no mayor, we have no city attorney. We're just, like, regular people trying to figure this out."
Borg decided he wasn't going to just accept it. He organized a letter-writing campaign and erected a sign at the entrance to town proclaiming "DAYS WITHOUT A BOLINAS POST OFFICE" with number placards that he would update every morning.
On Sunday, Bork posted the latest tally: 948 days.
"I think the sign was something to kind of keep the community engaged, and let them know, 'Hey, we haven't given up on this. We're still holding them accountable. We're still watching it and we're still working on this.'"
On Monday, everything changed. Bolinas got its post office back. After more than 2 ½ years of lobbying and negotiating, the residents began arriving at the exact same building, to get the keys to their brand-new post office boxes
"Oh my gosh, I've got mail!" said Linda Samuels. "Oh my gosh! I've got two keys. I've got mail in my own box in my Bolinas post office, and I can't even tell you how excited I am!"
"This is a great day! We were beginning to lose hope, but we are very, very happy!' said Nina Bellak. "It definitely feels like a win. We have few enough wins these days, so we've got to savor every one."
And to his neighbors, Borg has become something of a local hero.
"Yeah, John has the patience of Job and the wisdom of Solomon, is what I would say," said resident Ken Masterton.
As for Borg, he thanks Congressman Jared Huffman for taking the struggle to Washington D.C., and he credits the entire town for never giving up the fight.
"It felt like after a year and a half, two years, there's no way it's going to come back, there's no way it's going to happen. But we just kept plugging away. We thought maybe it would be 100 days, 200 days, 300 days. It just went on and on," he said, holding the numbers 948 from the final sign. "Fortunately, we didn't need to get another digit. We were moving pretty close to a thousand."
A dispute with a landlord was able to do what "snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night" couldn't. But now, the post office is back in Bolinas and instead of numbers, the sign outside of town has only three exclamation marks: "WELCOME BACK, BOLINAS POST OFFICE!!!"
