MADRAS – The Madras-Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce has asked the U.S. Postal Service to give the new Deer Ridge Correctional Institution its own ZIP code.

The effort is a long shot, but it’s part of an effort to establish the prison as an independent institution from the city of Madras, said Chamber Director Parrish Van Wert.

”You can create two separate identities,” Van Wert said. ”Redmond doesn’t have Bend’s ZIP code. Prineville doesn’t have Redmond’s ZIP code. Deer Ridge would have a separate ZIP code from Madras.”

Madras has pegged its future on the prison, with its 500 jobs, and on a high-end planned community east of town. City leaders have said they envision Madras as a potential second-home site for Portland residents, and a place for working professionals who can’t afford the skyrocketing real estate market in Bend.

Madras Mayor Rick Allen said the prison is unlikely to deter higher-income residents from moving to Madras.

”I believe the prison will be just a heck of a good employer out there,” Allen said. ”Out of sight, out of mind.”

But Van Wert said it only makes sense for the facility, which will hold more than 2,100 inmates when it’s completed in 2007, to be independent from the city.

”The population of this facility, with its permanent residents, will be bigger than a lot of the smaller communities in Central Oregon,” said Van Wert.

A postal service official rejected a similar request for an independent ZIP code from Metolius last year.

He told residents ZIP codes are allotted based on efficiency of mail delivery, not community identity.

No other Oregon prison has its own ZIP code, said Bobbi Burton, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections. The postal service decides how ZIP codes are assigned, Burton said, but the department would try to assist the chamber’s efforts.

Early inquiries weren’t promising, said Van Wert, but he’s continued to pursue the matter.

”I think they’re afraid of trying to establish a precedent,” Van Wert said. ”But Madras has set new precedents in a lot of arenas. Why not run it up the flagpole and see what happens?”

Ultimately though, upgrading the town’s infrastructure will be more important than creating a new ZIP code, said Allen.

”If you let your community become ragged and torn and (the prison) becomes your overriding kind of employment goal and employment base, that can get you in trouble,” Allen said. ”I don’t think the ZIP code out there makes any difference.”