Tulsans Continue To Fight Post Office Closing

By Tara Vreeland, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- A Tulsa woman is taking her fight to save a post office to a new level.

Peggy Fielding, 81, is a writer who relies on the Kendall Whittier Post Office near First Street and Lewis Avenue to conduct her business affairs.

"Being a writer, you must know they don't make a lot of money," she said. "Of course, once in a while we get a royalty check ... and you know where my royalty check comes from? The Kendall Whittier Post Office!"

Using a walker, Fielding picketed the station's closing for two months to no avail. The post office is set to close May 1.

Now, protesters are making a last-ditch effort to keep the post office open by filing a complaint to the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma.

"I do think my civil liberties are being taken away from me when I can't go to the post office that I want to," Fielding said. "It's the best post office in town, so far as comfort, parking, the people that work there."

The nature of the complaint is focused on equal protection based on gender, race, age, mental health and physical disability.

"Downtown there is no way that an old woman who walks with a cane could get in easily during the day," Fielding said. "All I want is the post office. And the ACLU in the past has proven to take a bulldog's grip on a subject and go for it and never change until the law has changed."

The U.S. Postal Service says it's closing Whittier Station because there are fewer customers. The building is small, and the lease is almost up.

Read the full statement from USPS.