Bay Shore groups fight to keep post office

Some Bay Shore residents are fighting to keep what they say is a key cog in their history and the hub of their downtown.

The Penataquit Post Office on Bay Shore Avenue, which residents say services dozens of businesses and thousands of residents, is on a list of 3,700 post offices nationwide that the U.S. Postal Service may shutter.

"The closure of this post office is strictly an arbitrary decision," said Donna Periconi, president of the Bay Shore Chamber of Commerce, which met with local residents and a representative of the postal service Tuesday night. "The post office is the heart of our downtown."

Postal Service officials said in July that three of Long Island's 112 post offices -- Penataquit, the Reckson Plaza Station in Uniondale and the post office in Setauket -- could be closed.

Once a study of whether to close Penataquit is begun, it will be completed within 138 days, a postal service spokeswoman said yesterday.

Periconi said Penataquit dates to the 1930s and should be preserved. Closing it would overwhelm Bay Shore's other post office on Fifth Avenue, she said.

Also, Penataquit is a centerpiece in Bay Shore's efforts to make its downtown walkable, and many seniors who walk to it would have to find alternatives, Periconi said. "It's a social institution. This is where you say hello to people," she said.

Since learning of Penataquit's possible closure, Periconi and others have campaigned for its survival. Bay Shore schools, service clubs, and civic associations are among groups writing letters of support.

Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) and Rep. Steve Israel (D-Dix Hills) wrote the postmaster general this month, urging him to keep Penataquit open.

"Closing this post office would be a bad decision and we will continue to fight it," Israel said in a statement Tuesday. "Not only does it cost jobs at the post office itself, but it could cost jobs at small businesses that rely on that post office for services."

His comments came against the backdrop of protests throughout Long Island Tuesday by dozens of postal union members opposed to cuts in postal services. They called for a change in financial planning and the continuation of a six-day delivery schedule.

Workers also called on lawmakers to pass a bill that would use "excess retirement payments" made by postal workers to alleviate the postal service's financial problems, among other things, organizers said.

Meanwhile, supporters of Penataquit plan to deliver about 5,000 letters to the post office and rally there on Oct. 7.