By Harold Egeln
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

BAY RIDGE — The fact that the U.S. Postal Service has placed the Ovington Postal Station at 6803 Fourth Ave. on its possible closure list is part of a national move to consolidate postal operations and services — and postal outlets all over Brooklyn could be at risk.

Neighborhood residents are outraged, with petitions and protests coming fast and furious.

“It’s quite serious,� said President Jim Musumeci of the American Postal Workers Union Brooklyn local. “All the retail financial stations in Brooklyn are being reviewed for closing except for the Homecrest and Ryder satellite offices. Our national union president got a letter from the Postal Service on May 15 alerting him that 3,000 such offices across the country are on a list for possible closing.�

Even though those possible closings would result in shuttered satellite stations, he explained, their services would be integrated into the larger postal branches, such as the Fort Hamilton Post Office on Fifth Avenue and 88th Street.

“There were public hearings on Staten Island and Flushing, and postal officials were hammered with complaints,� said Musumeci. The Staten Island mail processing station would be consolidated into the Brooklyn processing station, which did not sit well with Staten Islanders.

There have already been small changes in postal operations, he said. One of these has been changing opening hours at certain post offices from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m.

“It may seem like a little nuisance, but when you get that and all the other things they’re planning, it all starts to add up,� he said.

Musumeci ripped into the U.S. Postal Service for its actions and attitude. “�It’s not meeting its obligation to the public. They’re thinking like the CEOs of a Fortune 500 corporation and forget that they are providing a public service. They looked to the federal government for a bailout, and they were turned down.�

The union has been distributing flyers at many of Brooklyn post offices to alert the public about the looming actions. At the Ovington Post Office, employees are distributing a petition to keep the location open.

When the main post office in Brighton Beach, zip code 11235, was proposed for closing, the community revolted. Musumeci and Congressman Jerrold Nadler came to the rescue and saved it. A similar protest movement occurred in Manhattan’s Washington Heights.

When could a closure decision go into effect? Musumeci said that it would probably come in the early fall, after the September 30 date closing out the postal service’s fiscal year.

‘Hardship’ Foreseen If Ovington P.O. Closes

If the Ovington Postal Station were closed, local residents, businesspeople and senior citizens would have to use the Fort Hamilton Post Office 20 blocks south. Many people have complained about this branch, which is notorious for its long lines and waits.

The Bay Ridge Post Office at 5501 Seventh Ave. in Sunset Park is an equally long trek. Sunset Park has a satellite station on Fifth Avenue at 61st Street that is also well used by the local neighborhood. Sometimes when its gray steel gates are closed during a weekday, it is because the small staff all went to lunch at the same time.

Although e-mails, Twitter, and outfits like Federal Express and UPS have made inroads into the nation’s postal system, a great many people use “real� mail — not to mention direct marketers.

State Sen. Marty Golden, who was the first elected official to protest the possible closure, wrote a letter to Brooklyn Postmaster Joseph Chiossone. Golden noted that the Ovington office “provides necessary services to the residents of Bay Ridge.� His office has not yet received a reply.

Other elected officials have come to the post office’s defense, such as Congressman Mike McMahon, Assemblywoman Janele Hyer-Spencer and Councilman Vincent Gentile.

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