They are getting mail in Knights Ferry once again.

A Thursday night meeting, May 12 in the hamlet brought out interested residents and concerned citizens by the dozens, and postal officials got the message: We want our Post Office.

So, this week, the mail is being taken to the post office in the historic Knights Ferry Museum and History Associates building, once again begin distributed in the boxes for residents. Open hours are noon to 4 p.m.

The longstanding post office was closed abruptly after the unexpected passing of the contractor a couple of months ago and residents have had to get their mail at the post office in Oakdale since. Both share the 95361 zip code. But the outcry from residents was enough to prompt a meeting and a working out of a satisfactory solution.

“We have a person that will be working with us, she is there for four hours each day, this week from noon to 4 p.m.,” said Museum board treasurer Carol Davis. “We will have a soft opening on Monday, May 23; that’s when the marketing person will be there from Sacramento, Susan Donaldson, with all the equipment, whatever we need to run it.”

Davis said the community coming together in support of regaining their post office – and the intervention of Congressman Jeff Denham – swayed Sacramento in their favor.

“Congressman Denham will be here on Tuesday, May 31 at 11 a.m. to cut the ribbon,” Davis said of the official grand reopening celebration.

She added that Donaldson was ‘overwhelmed’ by the turnout on Thursday night and that reopening the post office was the preferred method of mail delivery for the majority of those in attendance.

Davis said the History and Museum Associates, as a group that has a board and is a non-profit, will be the contract group for the post office and they will hire and pay a person to run the office.

They anticipate it being open four hours a day, six days a week.

“We’re going to bond the museum to serve the public instead of each person that would be working in it,” she said.

First to take on the job will be Dolly Haskell, a member of the museum.

“She gets along well with people, I think it’ll work out well,” Davis said.

Well over 100 people were at the May 12 meeting in Knights Ferry and Davis said Donaldson offered an apology to residents with how the original shutting of the post office was done, quickly and with little warning.

“We were sweating it out,” Davis admitted of what the meeting outcome would be. “I know the Congressman had a huge impact because most of them that shut down don’t get reopened.”

But after having a post office for 150 years, she said the question everyone asked was “Why shut us down?”

And the answer, to their relief, was that the shutdown was temporary and they would be able to reopen for the community.