For three years now, Niland resident Juanita Wofford said she has been paying $84 each year for a P.O. box that no longer exists.
In February 2022, a fire struck the post office in Niland, where Wofford’s P.O. box was housed. The flames destroyed the building and cut off daily access to the mail for the tiny northern Imperial Valley town, along with the neighboring communities of Bombay Beach and Slab City.
Now, on the third anniversary of the fire, the U.S. Postal Service has made little progress toward restoring permanent service, despite questions from two U.S. senators and ongoing protests by Niland community leaders.
The delays have left residents like Wofford feeling frustrated. “It devastated a lot of people,” she said.
A Postal Service spokesperson did not immediately provide answers to questions Friday about how many Niland residents are still paying for P.O. boxes.
The Niland Post Office has been a lifeline for communities at the north end of the Imperial Valley for more than a century. Community leaders told KPBS that its closure has forced some residents to drive 50 miles to pick up their mail and delayed deliveries of medication and groceries to the mainly low-income community.
Postal Service officials have come under scrutiny over the length of the closure. In a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy last year, California’s senators Laphonza Butler and Alex Padilla said the delay was part of a pattern of lacking federal support for the state’s rural communities.
During a Senate hearing, Butler questioned DeJoy about the closure. The postmaster general admitted that the two year-delay was “unacceptable” and said the agency was working to resolve it.
(DeJoy has since announced plans to resign from the agency after five years at its head.)
On Thursday, Niland community leaders with the group Northend Alliance 111 prepared protest banners. They set them up at Niland’s fire station, next to the mail truck the Postal Service has deployed as a stop-gap measure to ferry mail from the neighboring town of Calipatria.
“We want timelines,” said Anna Garcia, a former-postal worker and Northend Alliance founder. “At least give us timelines.”
In a statement, Postal Service spokesperson John Hyatt said the agency had increased the truck’s presence in Niland from three to five days per week starting in December. Residents can pick up their mail there between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.
Hyatt said the agency couldn’t provide any other details on when the post office might be restored.
“We understand this is an inconvenience to our Niland customers and apologize for it,” he said.
Imperial County Supervisor Ryan Kelley said county officials were continuing discussions with the Postal Service. The county has offered to donate two buildings it owns in Niland to the agency.
“Those talks are progressing,” Kelley said. “We’re ready to give them the property to be able to have a post office in the future.”
