Pickets express displeasure over post office closing plans

YOUNGSTOWN — Postal customers and informational pickets from the postal clerks’ union expressed their displeasure concerning the proposed closing of the West Side post office.

A post office spokesman, however, said it makes sense to explore efficiencies of consolidating operations as a deficit looms due to declining mail volume associated with a troubled economy and increasing email.

A half dozen pickets marched in the rain Tuesday in front of the West Side post office at 2030 Mahoning Ave. to protest the U.S. Postal Service’s proposal to close that storefront facility, the East Side post office at 733 N. Garland Ave., and the South Side post office at 104 W. Hylda Ave. Passing motorists honked in support of the pickets.

“It would be very inconvenient for us to go downtown or to Austintown. All our business takes place here in this neighborhood,” said Father John Harvey, pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Church, 1025 N. Belle Vista Ave., on the city’s West Side.

“This is very close. Many people do not have transportation,” said Father Harvey, who was among many customers who signed petitions opposing the proposed closings. “We know everyone here and they’re very efficient,” he said of the West Side post office clerks.

The three neighborhood post offices are among 28 proposed for closing in northeast Ohio, said Victor Dubina, a post office spokesman in Cleveland. If the three Youngstown locations close, the employees working there will transfer to other post offices, he said.

Read more in Wednesday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com