Portal Post Office

LETTER TO THE COMMUNITY

Dear Portal Community,

For 43 years, the Jensen family has quietly and generously helped keep our community connected through our local post office. Since Joan Jensen’s passing, her daughters, Loy Guzman and Deb Bernard, along with Deb’s husband, Rob, have stepped forward to keep the post office operating.

Now, we face a critical moment. The Portal post office is at risk of closing, and we want to share why and what we need most from our community.

The financial realities vs. myths - There are significant misunderstandings of how the post office operates, its budget, and the role of donations. We want to share the realities and why they put our post office at risk.

Please read the attached letter. Your donation can help address the immediate funding gap. You can help save the heart of our community.

We thank you for considering our request for support on behalf of the post office. Your generosity is truly appreciated, and we are here to answer questions.

‍Dear Portal Community,

‍For 43 years, the Jensen family has quietly and generously helped keep our community connected through our local post office. Since Joan Jensen’s passing, her daughters, Loy Guzman and Deb Bernard, along with Deb’s husband, Rob, have stepped forward to keep the post office operating.

‍Now, we face a critical moment. The Portal post office is at risk of closing, and we want to share why and what we need most from our community.

‍The financial realities vs. myths

‍There are significant misunderstandings of how the post office operates, its budget, and the role of donations. We want to share the realities and why they put our post office at risk.

‍

‍Myth #1 - Our local contract post office receives enough funding from the federal

‍government via the United States Postal Service (USPS) to cover all expenses.

‍Fact: The USPS provides an annual stipend of just $9,999, or $833.25 per month. These funds must cover all labor costs, required insurance and bonding, utilities, equipment, technology, training, and other operating expenses.

‍Real costs are much higher! On an annual basis, the current estimate is that the post

‍office needs approximately $25,500 in addition to the stipend.

‍

‍Myth #2 - Our local contract post office is able to keep all of the revenue it generates on

‍top of the annual stipend.

‍Fact: 100% of the revenue generated from the rental of postal boxes, stamp sales, and

‍package mailing ALL goes back to USPS.

‍Our local office receives ONLY the $9,999 annual stipend from the USPS.

‍

‍Myth #3 - The post office staff benefit financially from the contract.

‍Fact: To receive that small stipend, the post office is contractually required to provide services for 84 hours per month. Do the math: If ALL of the $833.25 monthly

‍stipend went just to salary, our three staff members (Deb, Bill, and Jodi) would be

‍receiving $833.25 / 84 = $9.92 per hour.

‍

‍Put another way, if the stipend were divided equally among them, they’d be earning $277.75 per month. In addition to upholding the contract requirements, all staff are considered 1099 contract workers and must pay taxes on the earnings that they do make.

‍

‍Myth #4 - There are funds that the post office

‍receives to maintain the building.

‍Fact: Although the building and surrounding

‍land are owned by San Simon School District, all building repairs and improvements have been completed by the Jensen family for more than 40 years.

‍

‍Myth #5 - The post office team and budget can accommodate the new Amazon package deliveries that have inundated the team with deliveries of up to two plus pallets of boxes.

‍Fact: The $833 per month provided by the stipend does not cover the new added labor

‍to process these deliveries (let alone address the storage headaches). In fact, this burst of deliveries has added nearly $1,000 in labor costs per month, on top of the $1,300 per month that the post office already needs.

‍

‍In other communities with traditional mail services, receiving mail might seem like a public right. The contract we have is flawed and inadequate. Unfortunately, previous requests to USPS for an increase in the annual stipend have been denied.

‍On an annual basis, the current estimate is that the post office needs approximately $25,500 in addition to the stipend to cover operating expenses and labor (our postal staff $19,000, required bond, insurance, telephone & internet, repairs, utilities, etc. $6,500).

‍If each of the 300+ people who use the services of the Post Office gave $83 a year or about $7 per month, it would secure its ability to stay open.

‍We must come together to fight to keep our post office, the heart of our community. Your donation can help address the immediate funding gap.

‍You can provide financial support by either writing a check to Portal Community Post Office

‍LLC, BOX 16411, Portal, AZ 85632, or donating via GoFundMe.

‍We thank you for considering our request for support on behalf of the post office. Your

‍generosity is truly appreciated, and we are here to answer questions.

‍With gratitude,

‍Eskild Petersen Peter Waser Reed Peters

‍Carolyn Nordstrom Heather Hiscox Pat Espenak

‍Ray Mendez Carol Simon Howard Topoff

‍Deborah Bowman Stephen Burden

Support Our Portal Post Office

From Ray Mendez and Eskild Petersen

The Portal Post Office is dependent on our economic support to stay open. It is a contracted facility, not an USPS facility.Over 300people use the Post Office for their mail. If we all contribute, it cost each user very little.

Some might think it no problem if our P.O. were to close. Mailboxes and package delivery left in the front of the main road or side lane might do the trick for some but good cheer, community gathering spot, farmers market, bulletin board, stamps, jobs for a few residents and, most importantly, someone to help us with timely information as we all age would be a thing of the past. The drive to San Simon would now be our only local AZ P.O. station.

Preserving local institutions often means safeguarding not just a service but a sense of community, a shared history, and even an identity. This is especially true for rural landmarks like the Portal Post Office, which has served as a lifeline for communication and connection through generations. Its importance transcends its function as a postal service, becoming a gathering point and a silent witness to the evolution of its people and their stories.

Background:

1 The first Portal Post Office opened in 1905. It had a humble beginning. The road fromPortalto the booming mining town of Paradise was improved so settlers wouldbuy supplies in Paradise rather than Rodeo. A stage ran there from Rodeo and stopped to water horses at a spring near Mullens' on property homesteaded by ES Epley. A big sycamore was hollow and, in this, Epley put awhisky barrel, nailed on a counter, and served travelers. He put in a little store and applied for apost officeas Cave Creek. That name had already been taken by a little place north of Phoenix. Epley asked the men loafing on the bench by the store to think of names and a miner suggestedPortalbecause it was the gateway toParadise and the mines. It didn't seem so important that it was the opening to Cave Creek Canyon.

2 The Post Office has changed location many times in the 120 years since then.

3 1921: A railroad man, Raymond Roush and his wife Anna, left Horseshoe Canyon to buy land around the first stage stop. They built an adobe house above and a small store where Anna ran thepost office. She later married Colonel Pugsley.

4 1963: Portal had a traditional USPS-maintained Post Office with the zip code of 85628. We lost that USPS Post Office a few years later because of internal strife in our community which made the Postmaster in Tucson combine Portal with San Simon with the zip code of 85632, but he allowed a private contract branch to operate the service in Portal. It became a Contract Post Office when still housed in the General Store (now the Portal Cafe).

5 1965: "Red" Jensen bought Newmans' store and inherited the Post Office.Rich and Mary Winkler operated the store till it was sold to Codd’s.

6 1982: A slight case of embezzlement caused the regional postmaster to close the operation but a town meeting and, appropriately, a letter writing campaign, moved the official to leave us apost officeif a building and postmaster could be found.

7 Joan and Chuck Jensen won that contract as a branch of the San Simon Post Office. In July 1983 the Post Office moved to the old School House building owned by the San Simon School District to where it is housed now. They put in a low bid which included their paying the electricity, telephone, propane and maintenance bills, bonds and insurance. They provided the service for the next 4 decades.

8 2023: Debbie Bernard and Loy Guzman took over running the Post Office. In August that year the contract for the Post Office was transferred to the Portal Community Post Office LLC, a move required by the USPS regional office in Aurora, Colorado, that handled the contract with Portal Community Post Office, LLC.

9

When the Post Office was a school

The cost of keeping the Post Office in Portal currently is about $25,500 annually. Clerks $19,000, Bonds, telephone & Internet, repairs, utilities etc. $6,500

Income is $10,000 from Contract. Thus $15,500 is neededevery year to keep the Portal Office Open. If each of the 300+ people who use the services of the Post Office gave $62 a year or about $5 per month it would secure it staying open.

You can help keep your post office open by either writing a check to Portal Community Post Office LLC, BOX 16411, Portal AZ 85632 or donate via Go Fund Me (give often) =

https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-our-portal-post-office

Portal, AZ - Rodeo, NM