Post Offices

Twenty-six San Fernando Valley post offices will be open earlier on Saturdays and, to celebrate, the Encino post office will give away clocks this morning. The new hours, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays, will begin today at most post offices in the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys, according to postal authorities. Every 15 minutes this morning, the Encino Post Office at 5805 White Oak Ave. will give away a clock featuring the images of popular stamps. The U.S.

Residents waiting until the eleventh hour to mail their income tax returns will have 21 post offices in the region open until midnight Monday. Most of the facilities will have uniformed postal employees stationed at the curb. To find the closest post office that will be open late, call (800) ASK-USPS. Area post offices that will be open until midnight: Los Angeles * Downtown, 900 N. Alameda St. * Airport area, 9029 Airport Blvd.

The Greenmead post office in South-Central Los Angeles--the only post office burned down in the 1992 Los Angeles riots--reopened Monday at its former site at 12003 Avalon Blvd. For the last four years, residents in the 90259 ZIP code had to use the post office in Watts, said Larry Dozier, spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service. Now, all of the services--including post offices boxes--are back at the Avalon Boulevard location.

To cope with the avalanche of holiday mail, the U.S. Postal Service on Friday announced expanded hours at post offices across the San Fernando Valley. Area post offices will be open every day through Dec. 24, officials said. Window service will be available during regular business hours Monday through Saturday as well as from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Sunday. Because most holiday shoppers make their purchases during the final weekend before Christmas, postal officials anticipate that Dec.

Lines curled around corners and out doors at America's post offices Tuesday as letter writers hustled to buy stamps to cover the new postage rate. "Beat the Rush: G Stamps 32 cents," urged a sign in Washington's 19th Street postal station as customers waited. In Rochester, N.Y., the line snaked back 25 yards at times, prompting many to turn away. Others were willing to put an extra 29-cent stamp on a letter rather than wait.

Window service at the nation's post offices, reduced in February to save money, will be returned to normal levels in September, Postmaster General Anthony M. Frank announced Friday. Frank told the Postal Service Board of Governors that his managers have been able to find enough savings in other areas to end the reduction in window service, which was one step to trim spending by $160 million.

Post offices across Ventura County have seen steep increases in Express and Priority Mail in the wake of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters strike of United Parcel Service. In the Van Nuys district, which runs from Burbank across Ventura County to San Luis Obispo, U.S. Postal Service workers have seen 20% to 30% increases in Express Mail Next Day Service and two- to three-day Priority Mail, spokesman David Mazer said Wednesday.

The Postal Service has decided to follow a trend in business technology by offering facsimile machine service on an experimental basis. The "fax" machines have blossomed across the nation in the last few years, speeding copies of documents from business to business for people too impatient to wait for even messengers to make the trip. The experiment is expected to start in June at 260 post offices across the country, postal officials said. Bids are being let for the machines to be used.

Those lines at the post office are as much a holiday tradition as mistletoe and as unavoidable as your Aunt Edna's fruitcake. But no pouting, no stomping of feet, no screaming "This blouse isn't going to make it to Cleveland on time!" will be permitted this year. Folks who don't get their holiday packages off early won't have anyone to blame but themselves and will definitely make Santa's naughty list. Or so says the U.S. Postal Service.

This year's federal income tax forms aren't due for delivery until after the first of the year, but random sightings are already being reported. Because millions of tax forms have to be delivered, the Internal Revenue Service ships them to local post offices in advance, marked for delivery at a specific date. The 1993 forms are due for delivery Jan. 3. But every year a few get delivered early, and this year is no exception.