By Neena Strichart
After years of Signal Hill’s sharing post offices and ZIP codes with Long Beach, and pleading for a postal identity of its own, our dear (former) Congressman Steve Horn did the impossible— he fought diligently for the 2.2-square-mile-city’s cause and in 2002 proudly handed Signal Hill its own ZIP code— the melodious numerical combination 90755. With the ZIP code in place, the city and its residents were given the postal facility at 2300 Redondo Avenue to call their own.
According to an email I recently received from Long Beach Councilmember Gerrie Schipske, the United States Postal Service will be having a public meeting on its decision to consolidate some outgoing mail processing from that location— Long Beach Processing and Distribution Center— to Santa Ana in order to save $2.7 million. Although the USPS says collection and retail services would remain the same, Gerrie says 48 postal jobs will be lost if that decision is finalized.
I fear more than a loss of jobs. I worry about businesses who depend on their bulk mailings as a source of revenue or who use those services to communicate with their customers. Moving bulk-mail processing out of the county may be a hardship those businesses cannot endure.
If you are concerned about this matter, please plan to attend the public meeting hosted by the USPS on Wednesday, May 27 at 6pm at Alvarado Elementary School located at 1900 E. 21st. St., Signal Hill. Your input is needed, and the USPS claims that comments from the public will be considered before any final decision is made.
Here’s another interesting tidbit I received by email!
The Franchise Tax Board (FTB) sent a press release stating the following: State tax refund information can be found by visiting FTB’s website www.ftb.ca.gov.
To check a refund status, taxpayers need to have the following information ready:
� Social Security number
� Complete mailing address
� The refund amounts shown on the tax return
Taxpayers who e-filed their tax returns and requested their refunds to be directly deposited into their bank accounts generally receive their refunds within one week. FTB received nearly 4.2 million tax returns during the final weeks of the tax season and may need up to eight weeks to process paper returns filed during that time period.
For taxpayers who recently moved and did not choose direct deposit, their refund check may have been returned to FTB. The USPS does not forward tax-refund checks. FTB will reissue refunds once a new address is received. Taxpayers needing to change their address can go to www.ftb.ca.gov and download a Change of Address form or call 800-852-5711 between the hours of 7am and 6pm, Monday through Friday.
