Bay City Tribune

A Sargent resident spoke in appreciation of the efforts of the county judge and commissioners for bringing a United States Post Office to Sargent during the regular commissioner's court meeting Monday morning.

"It appears that the community in Sargent will finally get a post office set up at the Gulf Coast Realty office," said Ed Stavinaugh.

"I think this will be effective September 8."

Currently, Sargent residents have Bay City zip codes and those with post office boxes are forced to drive to Cedar Lane to pick up their mail.

"It's been a little confusing over the past few weeks whether we are going to have one or where it would be or what was going to happen," Stavinaugh said.

"I'm sure this will be a good change in the future when it happens."

Matagorda County Judge Nate McDonald apologized for the confusion regarding whether Sargent residents would get a post office or not.

"It's been kind of an onerous undertaking to get this done," he said.

"I tried to get it done through Houston's (United States Postal Service) and was basically stonewalled."

McDonald said he bypassed the postal service to elected officials with the request.

"I went to our legislators in Washington and they applied the pressure necessary to get that done for you all, especially Congressman (Ron) Paul's office," he said.

"We got the deal done by a hostile takeover kind of a deal. The USPS had dug their heels in and said it wasn't going to happen but the Congressman and Senators said, 'By God, it is.'"

McDonald said three bids were submitted to be a Bay City Post Office branch in Sargent.

Goerge Deshotels, Commissioner Pct. 2, said McDonald worked hard to secure a post office site in Sargent but the next step would be to see that Sargent gets its own zip code instead of having a Bay City zip code.

"Sargent needs its own zip code," Deshotels said.

"Because it's very confusing right now, having a Bay City address and a Bay City zip code."

"(Sargent residents) deserve it and (Sargent) is 25 miles from Bay City."

Deshotels said it is confusing when having packages delivered and when applying for disaster relief assistance with FEMA.

Doug Matthes, Matagorda County emergency management coordinator, explained also that sharing a Bay City zip code poses a threat to the safety of Sargent residents when calling for hurricane evacuations.

"Especially for an evacuation, we go by zip codes," he said.

"(Sargent) is in a surge zone and (Bay City) is not so it's real hard, from a safety standpoint, more than anything else for those people."

Deshotels suggested that Sargent residents get involved in acquiring their own by contacting Congressman Ron Paul and Texas' two senators.

McDonald said they would continue to work on that project as well as seeing that the town gets a stand-alone post office.

In other news, commissioners approved:

continuation of the county-wide burn ban;

accepting the budget for the adult probation department;

hiring a heavy equipment operator for precinct one;

a memorandum of understanding with the City of Bay City to go out for an additional Annual Justice Assistance Grant program award;

a contract with Clean Harbors Environmental Services Inc. for services and waste disposal during the 2009 Matagorda County Household Hazardous Waste Collection event on Oct. 31;

the Texas Department of Transportation optional fee of $10 county road and bridge fee;

and a $1,810 demand check to Mr. Fix-It for installation of a payment window in the Justice of Peace, Pct. 1 office.