Councilwoman Urges Residents to Fight Post Office Closings

Michele Avery, of Waverly, stood in front of her apartment building in the 1400 block of Fillmore Street, chatting with neighbors about the possibility of the Waverly Post Office being one of eight across the city that may be closed.

Avery, 49, said she doesn’t have a car and suffers from a respiratory disease. She said losing the post office would be a major inconvenience for her.

“We need this post office. It’s very convenient for us,” Avery said. “We have a lot of disabled people [living in the complex].”

Avery and her neighbors won’t be the only residents inconvenienced if the Waverly post office is closed. If the branch is shut down, it would leave the 21218 zip code without a post office.

The zip code covers an area from Lake Montebello in the east to Wyman Park in the west.  It also extends north to Cold Spring Lane and south to the Greenmount West neighborhood.

Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke, D-District 14, represents the majority of the 21218 zip code. She said the office serves 52,530 residents, nearly five times the national average of 10,000 residents served per post office.

At a press conference at the post office on Tuesday, Clarke called on residents to contact their representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, and demand a better plan than closing 36 percent of the city’s post offices.

Clarke said that the plan for closing the post offices needed to be “returned to sender.”

Councilwoman Helen Holton, Councilwoman Sharon Green Middleton and Councilman Warren Branch joined Clarke in protesting the proposed closures.

There are no proposed closures in Councilwoman Sharon Green Middleton's district, which includes parts of Cross Keys and Roland Park. But she said closing post offices will impact how mail is delivered citywide.

“It’s going to be a burden on the other districts that don’t have any closures but some of these post offices border the districts,” Middleton said.

Post offices in Govans, Mount Washington, Hampden and Roland Park are not being considered for closing.