Mike Kelly

The South Erie Post Office has been closed since Oct. 31 for repairs, with an unknown amount of work done since.

A local resident has collected over 2,300 petition signatures to pressure officials into reopening the facility.

Congressman Mike Kelly is demanding that postal officials visit Erie and provide a timeline for the reopening.

Residents have been redirected to other post offices, causing long waits and frustration for the community.

Congressman Mike Kelly presented an update on the South Erie Post Office on Sept. 10.

Two hours before he spoke at the closed 3607 Poplar St. facility, Nick Pallotto set up a table and a "Help Reopen Post Office" sign and started collecting petition signatures.

He got more than 35 before Kelly arrived.

"Not bad for being in an empty parking lot," Pallotto, 82, a retired guidance counselor, said.

Richard Smith, of Garden Avenue, was among those who pulled into the empty parking lot when he saw Pallotto's sign.

"I was on my way to a scoutmasters' meeting, saw it, and had to stop," Smith said. "This post office needs to reopen."

The post office has been closed since Oct. 31.

Smith's signature and the signatures of two more family members, Cameron and Grace Smith, brought Pallotto's total since June to more than 2,300. Pallotto has gone door to door, set up shop at Werner Books in the Liberty Plaza, and set up a table at the Presque Isle Post Office on Legion Road to collect signatures in hopes of pressuring postal officials to reopen the South Erie branch.

"People are angry," Pallotto said. "Everyone I've talked with wants this open again."

Pallotto started his crusade after he saw the windows at the South Erie Post Office boarded by a contractor.

"I asked him when the windows would be put back and he said he didn't have a contract for that," Pallotto said.

Pallotto contacted legislators, wrote to the postmaster general and launched his petition drive.

"I'm not going to stop," said Pallotto, who lives on Hazel Street, "772 steps" from the post office and miles from the Presque Isle branch on Legion Road, where South Erie customers have been directed.

"They've taken a service away from us, and the community is angry," Pallotto said.

'No one seems to be working on it'

Kelly, of Butler, R-16th Dist., and U.S. Senator John Fetterman, an Allegheny County Democrat, wrote Postmaster General David Steiner in August urging him to reopen the South Erie Post Office.

The post office has been closed for repairs, according to the postal service.

The legislators were told that the post office would reopen in November, but little or no work has been done, Kelly said.

"It doesn't look, by the condition of this building, that it's going to open anytime soon," Kelly said. "And no one seems to be working on it."

The next step, Kelly said, will be bringing postal officials to Erie.

"They need to come to the South Erie Post Office, look at this building and tell us what they're going to do to it and when," Kelly said. "People here deserve answers. A sign saying the post office is closed until further notice is not an answer."

Postal officials' response to the legislators' letter emphasized other post office locations and online options for postal services, Kelly said.

That's not what's needed, said Jeff Pongratz.

"This is an aging population, and not everyone is (online)," Pongratz said. "They pulled this post office out from under us with no explanation. And that's unfair."

South Erie customers redirected to the Presque Isle Post Office in Millcreek aren't happy with the waits for service there, especially during last Christmas season. Presque Isle customers were also angry about the long lines, Pallotto said.

"It was a debacle."

About the South Erie Post Office

South Erie Post Office is the only post office on Erie's west side. The only other post offices in the city are at 1401 State St. and 2108 E. 38th St.

The branch had provided postal services for westside neighborhoods since December 1959.

The only service currently offered there is collection from drive-up postal boxes.