First, the bad news.

The rumors apparently were true.

According to Kenmore Mayor David Baker, a Seattle-based manager of the U.S. Post Office was set to issue notice that the Kenmore branch post office would be closing permanently in 90 days.

Now, the good news.

“That whole process has stopped,” Baker said.

“That announcement has been held up,” added City Manager Frederick Stouder.

Baker and Stouder spent the early part of last week in Washington, D.C., partly on a mission to see what could be done to keep a local post-office branch in Kenmore.

“It was good to have everyone in the room or on the phone line … None of us, including the city, have had complete information at any given time,” Stouder said.

He added that at one point, 14 people were taking part in the D.C.-based discussion, either in person or via conference call.

According to Baker, district postal officials in Seattle were “operating on a set of facts that were 3 years old.” He added that misinformation and nationwide efforts by the post office to reduce expenses led to what was the impending closure of the Kenmore branch office.

Now, according to Baker and Stouder, regional postal officials are going to take another look at relocating Kenmore’s branch office, most likely to what is now Kenmore City Hall. Stouder added postal managers are scheduled to be in Kenmore touring the site sometime this week.

Questions became public in regard to the local post office last December. It was at that point that Bill Ptacek, director of the King County Library System, announced that plans for a new Kenmore branch library had been placed on hold awaiting a relocation decision by postal leaders. Due to budget concerns, postal officials just had cancelled a planned trip to Kenmore in order to scout out potential new locations for the local post office.

Currently located at 6531 N.E. 181st St., the Kenmore Post Office sits in the exact spot the library system some time ago tabbed for construction of a new library branch. But the post office holds a long lease on the property and could conceivably stand pat until 2011.

At the same time, Ptacek has said the library system has invested too much time and effort into the 181st Street location to look elsewhere for a new branch location. He’s now convinced there’s no need for such a search in any case.

After taking part in the D.C. conversation by conference call, Ptacek said he is hopeful the library system can put the new Kenmore building out to bid in August, with construction staring this year.

The idea of moving the Kenmore Post Office into City Hall surfaced in April. The city broke ground on a new municipal facility in late March. That building isn’t scheduled to be ready for a year, but Stouder has said if the current City Hall works for the post office, he is willing to move Kenmore’s administrative operations into temporary headquarters, probably one of the empty spaces in the existing Kenmore Village shopping plaza.

Baker said postal officials are asking, as they have in the past, for at least a two-year lease on the City Hall building. They also may be interested in a long-term lease inside what eventually is planned to become a rebuilt Kenmore Village. Stouder added that during the D.C. discussion, Ptacek reiterated, by phone, the library system’s willingness to pay any relocation costs connected with moving the post office.

Baker said postal officials have looked at a couple of other potential locations in Kenmore, including the current site of the Kenmore Library. He added they also studied an old gas-station location, but environmental clean-up costs proved prohibitive.

Neither Stouder nor Baker mentioned any timelines for a decision by the post office, but seemed optimistic something will happen soon.

“We laid down some very clear lines of communication,” he said. “It all seems very positive.”