Postal service denies city’s ZIP code appeal
February 4, 2010
By Tim Pfarr
Newcastle has been denied a ZIP code once again, this time through an appeal at the federal level.In September, then-City Manager John Starbard wrote a letter to the U.S. Postal Service’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., asking for reconsideration of the Seattle District’s decision to deny the city a ZIP code. In December, the city received a response from James W. Kiser, manager of delivery operations for the postal service.
“After a thorough review of the case file and the details of both the Seattle District and Western Area office decisions, it is the final determination of this office to support the denial of your request,” Kiser said in his letter.
In his letter, Starbard discussed how the city lost revenue by not having its own ZIP code, and Kiser responded to this concern in his response.
“ZIP codes are designated to allow the efficient and effective processing and delivering of the mail. It is unfortunate that many businesses, as well as other organizations and state agencies throughout the country, utilize the assigned ZIP codes for purposes other than those originally designed,” Kiser said in his letter.
Starbard also discussed the city’s mail-delivery problems that result from not having a unique ZIP code, but Kiser said granting Newcastle a ZIP code would not result in any operational benefits and would be “cost prohibitive” to the postal service.
Mayor John Dulcich said the fight for a ZIP code would continue.
“I never want to quit trying to obtain our ZIP code,” he said.
Newcastle previously applied for a ZIP code twice — once in 1994, when the city first incorporated, and again in 2004. Both requests were turned down. Because a city is required to wait five years between ZIP code requests, Newcastle was not able to make a request again until 2009.
Now, the city must wait until 2014 to apply once more.
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