Residents Rally Across The East End To Save The Post Office

EAST HAMPTON, NY — East Hampton residents were among many across the East End to #SavethePostOffice. Carrying signs that said "Stamp Out Facism. Save Our USPS," they gathered to cry out against recent changes, including the removal of mail collection boxes, and urge the allocation of $25 billion in funding.

The rallies coincided with a vote by the U.S. House of Representatives Saturday on the "Delivering for America Act," a bill that prohibits the U.S. Postal Service from making changes to operation or levels of service from those in effect on Jan 1; establishes requirements for the processing of election mail; and appropriates $25 billion as an additional payment to the Postal Service Fund, of which $15 million would be transferred to the USPS Office of Inspector General.

The vote passed the House 257 to 150; Rep. Lee Zeldin voted "no" to the measure. The Senate still needs to vote on the legislation.

To read the entire bill, click here.

Before Saturday's gatherings outside post offices across Long Island, Mike Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union, urged the public to come together to support the measure.

In East Hampton, residents met at Hook Mill and, carrying signs, walked single file in front of the East Hampton post office. Gatherings were also held in Greenport and other post office locations.

Present at the event was Laura Ahearn, who won the primary to run for a seat in the 1st Senate District against Republican candidate, current New York State Assemblyman Anthony Palumbo, for the position held by retiring New York State Senator Kenneth LaValle for 44 years.

Those who gathered spoke to Patch about why they felt it was so important to attend.

"My reason for demonstrating today was the realization that our so-called commander in chief and POTUS was suppressing the most sacred right in what's left of our democracy, the right to vote without influence, restraint or manipulation by our government, foreign nation or individual. The post office is among the basic governmental agencies that service the masses as well as the money classes in this still emerging nation. Besides, as a veteran, I depend on the USPS to deliver all of my VA pharmaceuticals," said Larry Smith of East Hampton.

David Posnett said, "apart from the obvious, the USPS delivers absentee ballots, Social Security and other benefit checks, needed medication, veterans' benefits, jobs for among others, 100,000 veterans, and often forgotten — the USPS is the major carrier for small businesses."

Posnett said he has a small business online, with 100 percent of his orders delivered by the USPS. "Using an alternative carrier such as UPS or Fedex would triple my costs and I would likely lose all international sales, currently about half of my business. The same applies to many small businesses on Long Island," he said.

Alice Tepper Marlin said she came to the rally "out of dread that our most basic political right — the right to vote — is under attack nationally by Trump and locally by Zeldin. Postmaster General DeVoy refuses to restore the post boxes and mail sorting machines he recently had removed, debasing the most respected of U.S. agencies. Trump denies the USPO funds needed to cope with COVID-level deliveries."

Some waved signs calling for DeVoy's termination.

She added: "Our hardworking mail carriers deserve overtime work and pay to cope with the deluge of mail during the COVID pandemic. In our community, blue mailboxes have been hauled away. DeVoy should put them back immediately. The boxes and sorting machines are urgently needed nationally, to process our mail-in ballots so that we citizens can confidently vote remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic."

Ahearn spoke to the group gathered and said New York has seen firsthand the harm brought by COVID-19, with over 25,000 deaths. The most vulnerable in the population, she said, count on mail-in ballots to vote.