Las Vegas mail being processed on schedule

Jeff German and Benjamin Grove

Monday, Oct. 22, 2001 | 9:58 a.m.

Las Vegas postal workers today were processing the mail on schedule and taking no additional precautionary measures amid disclosures that employees at other post offices were diagnosed with anthrax.

"There's tremendous concern, but we have to keep going just like anybody else," said Vic Fenimore, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service in Las Vegas."We cannot let this get us down."

Over the weekend it was learned that three postal employees were diagnosed with anthrax, one in Washington with the inhaled form and two in New Jersey with the less serious skin form. Other cases of possible exposure were being investigated.

Fenimore said "spirits are high" among the 3,000 letter carriers and employees who process the mail in Las Vegas.

"It's a determination from us that we're not going to let this thing terrorize us," he said. "We're trying to set an example to the rest of the public. We're going about our jobs and our daily duties, and we kind of think we would expect the rest of the public to do it too."

Fenimore said all 950 employees who process the mail at the main post office at Sunset and Paradise roads already have been given special training to spot and deal with suspicious letters that may contain anthrax.

Some employees continue to wear gloves, but very few, if any, are wearing masks, Fenimore said.

"There's just nothing else we can do other than use caution," he said, adding the odds are slim that a postal worker will come in contact with an anthrax-tainted letter.

"You would have to win the lottery two times before you would receive one of these pieces of mail," he said.

Meanwhile, today none of the more 30 staffers in the office of Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., so far have tested positive for anthrax, Reid spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said.

Reid, the Senate's assistant majority leader, learned on Sunday that he also tested negative, Hafen said.

Reid had called the test an extreme precaution and never feared that he might have been exposed. Senate's No. 2 Democrat has an office in the Hart Office Building, where some workers in Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's office were exposed to the potentially deadly bacteria.

Although Congress is officially open today, the House and Senate office buildings where congressional staffers work still are closed.

Officials expect the buildings could re-open tomorrow. Some lawmakers, including Reid, are working in the Capitol today. The Capitol remains closed to tourists today.

In more fallout over the anthrax scare, two local malls, the Boulevard and Meadows, announced that they would not be holding Halloween trick-or-treating on Oct. 31.

Both malls, however, will be open for business.

In a news release, the malls said:

"Because Halloween is typically associated with mischievous behavior, the Boulevard and Meadows malls feel it would be prudent this year, in light of the recent national tragedies, not to hold trick-or-treating or other Halloween-related events."

There have been widespread rumors that malls across the country may be targets of terrorist attacks on Halloween.