A mailer supporting a fee increase for the Penn Valley Fire District ended up in a Post Office recycling bin, apparently because it resembled an earlier flier mailed by the district.

Neighbors Concerned for Fire Safety spent almost $1,400 to print and mail 5,300 fliers backing the fee increase to owners of property in the district now voting on the issue.

The mailer was delivered to the Penn Valley Post Office May 16, three days after an almost identical educational mailer prepared by the district had been mailed.

Rick Nolle, chairman of the citizens committee, said he was told that a postal clerk apparently assumed the new fliers were leftover copies of the earlier mailing, and consigned them to the recycling bin.

Nolle said Pat Burt, the officer in charge of the Penn Valley Post Office, readily conceded an employee erred and that the postage would be refunded. The citizens committee has also filed a claim for the cost of the printing.

Arleen Bowman, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service in Sacramento, said errors that caused the problem have been corrected. "We are working with the mailer to resolve the situation," she said.

Nolle said the citizens group's flier was designed to look like the district's flier to reinforce the message, and that the mailing was timed for the arrival of the official ballots.

It's too late to do another mailing, Nolle said, and he hopes the mixup won't have a negative impact on the vote.

Property owners in the district are being asked to increase the assessment from $11.22 for a single-family house to $57.19 annually so the district can hire four firefighters/paramedics to staff the Spenceville Road fire station.

Ballots are due - by mail - on July 5.

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To contact staff writer George Boardman, e-mail georgeb@theunion.com or call 477-4236.