The back of the Stateline Post Office is in the process of being renovated. Photos/Kathryn Reed

By Kathryn Reed

STATELINE – Boxes are scattered about, the floor is torn up, one person is putting mail into individual boxes, construction crews are out front.

A tree blocks the direct route to the loading dock, the roofline is crumbling from being hit by trucks, concrete is in need of repair.

This is the Stateline Post Office.

It is finely receiving some attention after years of neglect.

“It’s 36-years-old and it seems like it is older than that,” Suzanne Phillips said as she walked through the facility.

Phillips’ normal job is postmaster in Boulder City in Southern Nevada. Right now she is interim manager of postal operations, which encompasses 90 offices in California and Nevada. She is spending several weeks just at the Stateline office so it will function better – personnel-wise and aesthetically.

“Once we get someone in here and get consistency, people will notice a change,” Phillips told Lake Tahoe News.

This office has not had a regular postmaster for a number of years. That postmaster is also responsible for the Zephyr Cove and Glenbrook post offices.

Construction crews are a common sight at the post office.

While there was a time when the Stateline office was slated to close, that is no longer the case. Higher ups figured out it would be hard to displace the 2,000 boxholders. Plus, this office makes money.

The next closest office is 1½ miles away in Zephyr Cove. It is a leased facility, whereas the Postal Service owns the Stateline building. To accommodate the Stateline boxholders it would require significant renovating.

(No one on the Nevada side of the South Shore has home delivery.)

Most of the improvements are cosmetic in nature – paint, cleaning, new floors. The floor in the back – where the public is not allowed – will be replaced after the holiday rush.

The lobby has been revamped. All the writing tables were removed and new cabinets installed.

Juniper out front is gone and more landscaping improvements will come in the spring. The plan is to take out the pine out front so trucks have a direct shot to the loading dock. Some concrete is also slated to be removed.

Phillips is hoping sprucing things up will make the building better appealing from the curb and bring a little pride to the Lower Kingsbury Grade area.

“You drive by and you don’t know it’s a post office,” she said.

Part of this has to do with signage, the loading dock being in the front and the parking lot being in the rear.

A solution for the parking lot is still being sought.

The big unknown is what to do about the parking lot, which is in the back. It slopes down toward a ditch. There are no erosion control measures in place.

A three-year Tahoe Regional Planning Agency permit expired in 2010. Now the price to replace the drive and put in the best management practices is about $900,000.

But it’s not just the post office’s runoff that is a problem. The building is attached to offices on the east, plus there are commercial entities all around it. Those properties also have runoff that is not being filtered.

Phillips said postal workers are investigating a more comprehensive approach to come into compliance with TRPA regs instead of going about it solo.