To them, it's a matter of civic pride as well as efficient mail delivery.

"The state of Utah, the federal government, the IRS and Salt Lake County all recognize that Taylorsville City exists - but the Post Office department does not," said former Councilman Bruce Wasden.

"Pure and simple - people send me mail addressed to Taylorsville and it's mutilated, has black marks all over, some computer strip on it, or gets returned to sender. This has been going on for years."

Taylorsville shares ZIP codes with at least four communities: 84118 from Kearns, 84119 from West Valley City, 84123 from Murray and 84084 from West Jordan.

And within a 10-mile radius of Taylorsville City Hall, there are five branch post offices: Kearns, West Valley, Murray, West Jordan and Salt Lake City. The Kearns branch actually fell within the Taylorsville city limits after the incorporation.

In early June, about 125 residents packed City Council chambers to express their concerns about mail delivery and the city's need for its own ZIP and post office.

"There were many poignant stories," said Mayor Janice Auger. "We've had elderly people report to us that their Social Security checks or prescriptions have been returned. Some people have had problems getting their tax-refund checks."

Auger enlisted the help of U.S. Rep. Chris Cannon, who is one of many co-sponsors of House Resolution 22, the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2005 now before Congress.

Earlier this week, Cannon got a verbal commitment from the bill's sponsor, Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia.

While Davis acknowledged that HR22 was not designed to address specific shortcomings in service delivery and ZIP codes, he pledged to work with Cannon and the postmaster general to arrive at a thoughtful solution for the city of Taylorsville.

"We're tackling huge issues like energy and [Central American trade] most of the time, but for three minutes on the House floor, the focus was on Taylorsville," said Cannon spokesman Charles Isom.

Taylorsville's pleas also have been heard by Postal Service representatives.

"Our case file on Taylorsville goes back almost a decade," says Utah District Manager Robert Vunder.

However, the issue is complex and some solutions would be costly to implement, he says.

"We won't build a million-dollar post office based on town identity," Vunder said. "We don't define political borders - our job is to deliver the mail as efficiently as possible."

In 2001 city officials first requested a unique ZIP code for Taylorsville. At that point, USPS took steps toward finding a solution. The problem is a complex one.

The service's existing computer programs dictate that a community name can only be listed as an alias for one regional post office. The 841 ZIP codes stem from the Salt Lake City post office, so Taylorsville was approved as an alias for three of its four ZIPs: 84118, 84119 and 84123.

This meant that mail addressed to Taylorsville with those three ZIPs would be channeled currently by the existing computerized system.

The trouble spot became Taylorsville's so-called West Jordan corridor, which uses the ZIP 84084. If addressed to West Jordan, the system channels the mail properly, but when Taylorsville is combined with that ZIP, the system kicks it out.

"The two service areas complicate this issue," Vunder said. "The systems are so integrated and so computer-dependent. Less than 9 percent of letter mail is humanly handled."

To further explore Taylorsville's request, in June 2001 USPS sent out 1,321 surveys to affected residents in that West Jordan corridor to see how many supported a ZIP code change to that of Kearns, 84118.

A total of 620 surveys came back, of which 417, or 67 percent, were not in favor of the change. The request was denied because it lacked majority support and, according to USPS rules, it cannot be revisited for 10 years.

In recent years, USPS has moved away from brick-and-mortar to seek more cost-effective ways to provide postal services and products over the Internet and at alternate retail locations, such as grocery stores and banks.

"If it made sense to do what they're asking, we would," Vunder said. "We'd have to be able to justify the costs."

While Wasden said his mail delivery has improved since the June meeting, he dislikes putting West Jordan as his address rather than Taylorsville - and he remains skeptical of the USPS. "The postal department is a large, ingrained bureaucracy that doesn't seem to have a real interest in changing," Wasden said.