Marana's quest to change two Tucson ZIP codes to allow for a Marana designation could end up leading to entirely new ZIP codes for those areas instead.
In September, the Marana Town Council passed a resolution to ask the U.S. Postal Service to allow people living within town limits in the 85743 and 85741 ZIP codes to use "Marana" in their mailing addresses, while still allowing people outside Marana to use "Tucson," as both ZIP codes are designated now.
With about 8,400 addresses, Maranans constitute nearly 60 percent of 85743, yet the Postal Service still labels it as Tucson, dating to before Marana annexed so much of the area, according to town research. Marana has just 339 addresses - or about 3.1 percent - in the 85741 ZIP code.
Sometimes mail is delayed or lost if it is labeled Marana instead of Tucson - even if the intended recipient's address is technically within town limits, Josh Wright told the Town Council last fall. Wright is the assistant to Marana Town Manager Gilbert Davidson and has been working with the Postal Service on the matter.
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Sometimes state agencies send important town information to the city of Tucson because they see an address that is labeled Tucson instead of Marana.
And council members as well as past council candidates have met people who didn't even know they lived in Marana, he said.
After the council resolution, Marana staff met with representatives from the Postal Service's Arizona district manager's office, Wright said in an interview.
The town representatives got a crash course in Postal Service sorting and discovered the proposal wasn't going to work, Wright said.
The first three digits of a ZIP code represent what post office the mail will be delivered from, and a municipality can't appear in more than one three-digit prefix, he said.
Marana is the designated municipality for certain ZIP codes that begin with "856." So it can't also appear in ZIP codes that begin with "857," as it has requested.
With that discovery, Wright said, Postal Service staff worked with town staff to find a solution.
As a short-term fix, the the idea came up of changing the ZIP code of Maranans living in 85743 and using the Cortaro Post Office, on West Arizona Pavilions Drive in Continental Ranch, as a delivery center for south Marana mail.
It is currently only a retail location where people can buy stamps, drop off mail and rent post office boxes.
Long-term, the town could work with the Postal Service - after the economy improves - on building an expanded facility in north Marana to handle mail for the entire town, with everyone using a ZIP code beginning in "856."
The town was hopeful about the long-term plan, Wright said, because the Postal Service helped Marana staff write the new proposal.
But those hopes were dashed in a Jan. 13 letter from Postal Service District Manager Lawrence K. James, who wrote, "The Cortaro Post Office is not large enough to accommodate Marana deliveries from ZIP code 85743. There is insufficient parking for customers, employees and USPS vehicles. There would be additional costs incurred by the Postal Service to remodel the building, increase parking areas, add security and change transportation, among other costs."
Additionally, James wrote, there aren't any plans to change the existing Marana Post Office in north Marana.
The town has since filed an appeal to the national headquarters in Washington, D.C., Wright said.
Marana received a March 9 letter saying the western area office is reviewing the decision, and that's the last the town has heard, he said.
The Postal Service has 60 days from the date of that letter to announce the results of the review, said Rob Soler, a USPS spokesman. Soler sat in on some meetings with the town last fall.
The Postal Service will make sure nothing has been overlooked and will see if there's any option for full or partial accommodation of the town's request, he said.
And because the appeal was made to Postal Service headquarters, if the Postal Service decides the changes can't be made, there is no other recourse for the town, he said.
"A ZIP code change doesn't affect just how we handle mail for Marana, but it affects the way mail is handled everywhere in the United States, going to Marana," Soler said.
"Bottom line is, if we can do it (make the requested changes) and provide the service we're committed to providing, we'll do it."
Contact reporter Shelley Shelton at sshelton@azstarnet.com or 807-8464.
