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Pickets protest plan to close post offices
Customers said the West Side post office is in a convenient location.
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 e-mail.
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.
Seven clerks work in the three threatened facilities here, said Ellis Williams, director of education and legislation for the 350-member Local 443 of the American Postal Workers Union. That union represents clerks, mail transportation and maintenance employees.
“The postal service has been designed for quick, easy access for all residents,” he said, adding that the three threatened locations serve many elderly people without computers at home for whom a trip downtown would be inconvenient. Closing the three facilities would represent “no true savings for the postal service,” he said.
Clerks at the three Youngstown post offices threatened with closing sell stamps and money orders, accept mailings and handle Passport applications. These three facilities, all occupying rented quarters, have post office boxes, but no letter carriers are based in them.
The three post offices here were among 3,000 post offices nationwide that the postal service announced in July that it was proposing to shut down. At that time, the three were among the least frequented in the Mahoning Valley, Dubina said.
Dubina said the three Youngstown locations are being evaluated by a local team of postal employees. If that team recommends closing them, the final decision will be made by postal officials in Washington and announced after Oct. 1, he added.
A minimum of 60 days will elapse between the announcement of any closing and the actual shutdown of that facility, he added.
“If we want to keep the organization financially viable, we have a responsibility to see where we can gain efficiencies and where consolidations make sense,” Dubina said.
Dubina said criteria for deciding whether a post office stays open include the volume of customer traffic, the proximity of other post offices and retailers that offer postal-related products and services, the inconvenience to employees who would be relocated, how a closing would affect postal service standards, cost savings to be achieved through a closing including savings in mail transportation costs, and employee productivity gains that might be achieved through consolidation.
The post office carried 213 billion pieces of mail in 2006, but it expects to carry only 175 billion this year, Dubina added. The post office is entirely dependent on user fees; and it gets no tax dollars, Dubina said.
Nationally, the postal service is losing about $20 million a day, and the post office expects to finish the fiscal year Sept. 30 about $7 billion in the red, Dubina said.
The post office is seeking cost savings in its retail operations now that it has adjusted carrier routes, consolidated mail processing and cut its administrative staff by 15 percent, he said.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
Comments on the proposed West Side post office closing:
“We’re not asking for the post office to bring back the Pony Express. We just want them to live up to their obligation to provide service for everyone and not pick and choose who gets that service and who doesn’t.” — Dominic Corso, president of Local 443 of the American Postal Workers Union.
“Going downtown — it just seems more of a hassle. ... Going to a different post office takes me away from my office longer.” — Martha Kennedy of Austintown, office manager of Casual Carpets, which has a warehouse at 1707 Mahoning Ave.
“It would be terrible. I mean it’s one more thing that’s going to hurt the West Side. ... There’s a lot of retired people that still live in this area that depend on this post office.” — Alan Matyi, an auto mechanic and West Side resident.
“I’d have to go either clear downtown or all the way to Cornersburg. That’s just not feasible. I mail a lot of mail.” — JoAnn Barron, a West Side resident and owner of Barron Tile, a ceramic tile business.
“We have more post offices, stations and branches than Wal-Mart, Starbucks and McDonald’s put together.” — Victor Dubina, U.S. Postal Service communications specialist in Cleveland.