Fetterman, Kelly Join Effort to Reopen South Erie Post Office | Washington D.C.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Federal lawmakers are intervening after local pleas to address a local post office. 

In October 2025, the South Erie Post Office on Poplar Street closed for repairs. Nearly 10 months later — it’s still closed. 

One local man’s effort, collecting more than 1,600 signatures for a petition to reopen the South Erie Post Office, has caught the attention of Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., and Congressman Mike Kelly, R-Pa. 

On Friday, the two lawmakers sent a letter to the Postmaster General, urging the USPS to reopen the Post Office and provide updates on its current status and future. 

“Erie residents who do not drive struggle to access alternative post offices, while others report long waits at retail counters to retrieve their rerouted mail. In addition, we are concerned about dangerous conditions at the South Erie Post Office, including missing windows, holes in the pavement, and unhoused individuals sleeping on the premises,” the lawmakers wrote. “Unless the South Erie Post Office reopens soon, residents worry that they will face another holiday season without their local post office,” they added. 

Fetterman and Kelly are seeking answers to three important questions: 

“What is the status of repairs at the South Erie Post Office? What work has been done so far and what remains to be completed? Will the South Erie Post Office reopen and be fully operational in November 2026? Are there plans to permanently close or relocate services provided by the South Erie Post Office? If so, please provide additional information on these plans.” 

“Our offices learned that the South Erie Post Office is set to reopen in November 2026, but USPS has not communicated this with the community, and the current condition of the building leaves that timeline in doubt. The Erie community relies on this post office for essential services and it deserves answers about when services will be restored,” Fetterman and Kelly wrote in the letter. 

Momentum to address the issue began months ago, when Erie resident Nick Pallotto took action. Pallotto’s efforts — first covered by Erie News Now’s Philip Ward — resulted in circulated petitions, roughly 1,600 signatures to date, a meeting with Rep. Kelly, and now, the bipartisan, bicameral intervention of the Commonwealth’s top federal policymakers. 

Pallotto says it’s all about fighting to restore an essential service that his community deserves. 

“They want their service back. It [USPS] may be a quasi-business according to the way it’s set up, but it’s still a service,” said Pallotto. “If you look at what each of the branches do, it says right on it, ‘service.’ It’s not a total business… And the federal government is designed to help because they’re the ones in ’70 that said, go be a business,” Pallotto added. 

Pallotto is referring to the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 — the law that transformed the Post Office Department into the independent, self-financing U.S. Postal Service in 1971. While the USPS is designed to be self-sustaining, Congress has stepped in several times over its 55-year history to lend a hand. 

It’s unclear what type of federal assistance could be available to address the South Erie Post Office. However, it is clear that federal leaders are invested and determined to find answers as well as a course of action.