PAGE A14, KEIZERTIMES, AUGUST 5, 2016
ZIP,
continued from Page A1
“(The USPS) put it in at State
Street and Keizer lost out.”
She and Post are hoping
to draft a resolution that can
be put before the Oregon
Legislature next year. They
are modeling the effort on a
campaign launched in Tigard
in April 2015.
Tigard's
primary
zip
codes most frequently list
the city as part of Portland,
the same way 97303 lists
Keizer as part of Salem. The
Legislature approved a bill
urging Congress and the
USPS to reclassify the Tigard
ZIP codes. However, the bill
has no power on its own, and
any change requires federal
approval.
To date, both the 97223
and 97224 ZIP codes are still
associated with Portland in a
Google search.
Parsons
has
already
emailed a contact at USPS,
but has yet to receive a reply.
“We are still waiting, but
(Rep. Post and I) want to put
together a plan for finguring
out who will listen to us.
We'd love to just sit down
and have the conversation,”
Parsons said.
It remains to be seen
whether a dedicated ZIP
code would result in the
return of the self-service
postage machine, but Parsons
would like to see that be part
of the conversation.
ZIP codes were established
in 1963 to mainstream mail
sorting and allow the USPS
to cope with the increasing
volumes of mail. The first
number in the code represents
a general geographic area of
the nation, “0” in the east,
moving to “9” in the west.
The next two numbers
represent regional areas, and
the final two identify specific
post offices. However, since
their origin, ZIP codes have
become a shorthand way to
identify population segments
according to demographics
(incomes, ages, ethnicities,
etc.).
Parsons sees a dedicated
ZIP code as one more way
to attract businesses to the
Keizer – a new grocery store,
for example.
“We're
lumped
with
northeast Salem and when
you look at the cost of living
or the income range for
residents, we don't know how
much of that is true. I think
it's very skewed,” Parsons said.
“We want Keizer to have its
own ZIP code so that, when
businesses pull demographics,
it's going to be more accurate
in terms of what our needs
are.”
KT owner
honored
by ONPA
Les Zaitz, a partner in the
Keizertimes and senior inves-
tigative reporter for The Or-
egonian, has been awarded the
state newspaper association’s
highest honor.
The Oregon State News-
paper Publishers Associa-
tion presented Zaitz with
the Amos Voorhies Award,
which recognizes “outstand-
ing journalistic achievement
in the public interest.” He is
the first reporter to receive
the award, which dates to
1938 and was last given out
in 2009.
He has been a partner in
the Keizertimes since 1987
and has worked for The Or-
egonian/OregonLive for 26
years. His family also owns
the Malheur Enterprise, a
weekly newspaper based in
Vale.
“In a world of shrink-
ing newspaper budgets that
threaten the future of inves-
tigative reporting, Les Zaitz
is continuing his decades-
old tradition of painstakingly
thorough and fair investiga-
tions and reporting about
major issues of public interest
to Oregonians,” the associa-
tion said in its citation.
Zaitz, a two-time Pulit-
zer finalist, has investigated
public corruption, terrorism,
drug cartels, cults and corpo-
rate fraud. He is married to
Scotta Callister, publisher of
the Malheur Enterprise. His
brother Lyndon is publisher
of the Keizertimes.