South Oak Park post office delivers 
official grand opening, new stamp

By ERIC LINDEN

The south Oak Park post office has been open since November, but the
official grand opening of the biggest development ever in south Oak Park
didn't take place until today.

A mixture of retirees, officials from local agencies, post office
employees, parents and an occasional crying child attended the May 12
grand opening at 1116 Garfield St. Also present were local people who
had a vested interest in the new adoption stamp being issued by the U.S.
Postal Service this week.

"It's just a beautiful stamp," said Ron Pusateri, postmaster of the Oak
Park Post Office, which includes the main branch at 901 Lake St., the
River Forest branch at 401 William St. and the $5 million south branch
on Garfield.

The multi-colored adoption stamp that includes the inspiring phrases
"adopting a child," "shaping a life," "building a home" and "creating a
world" was unveiled in Oak Park on a so-called second-day cancellation.
The initial cancellation took place two days earlier in Los Angeles, and
a follow-up was held in north suburban Evanston that was attended by
several big-name celebrities.

Unveiling of the adoption stamp in Evanston drew former heavyweight
boxing champion Muhammad Ali and former Chicago Bears football Hall of
Famer Gale Sayers, who are "adoptive parents," in the phrase of the
adoption community. Also on hand in Evanston was Dave Thomas, the
founder of the Wendy's hamburger restaurant chain who is himself
adopted. Post office officials said Thomas had spearheaded the national
campaign to issue an adoption stamp.

The cancellation in south Oak Park had some local dignitaries. Elizabeth
Lippitt, executive director of the Oak Park River Forest Infant Welfare
Clinic at 320 Lake St. and also the president of the Oak Park District
97 elementary school board; Chrisha Mitchell from Hephzibah Children's
Association, which assists local low-income elementary school children;
and Laurie Lawton of Lutheran Child and Family Services of Illinois,
which has offices in Oak Park and River Forest, represented local
agencies involved with adopted children. Oak Park Village Clerk Sandra
Sokol and Village Trustee Barbara Ebner attended, as did Marquetta Smith
from the office of U.S. Rep. Danny K. Davis, who offices includes River
Forest and the part of Oak Park north of the Eisenhower Expressway;
Vernon Wilson, a retired postal service employee who was once officer in
charge of Oak Park; George Kikuchi, postal service district manager; and
George Stuper, station manager of the south Oak Park station who
formerly had headed operations at the River Forest station.

Another River Forest connection rounded out the guest list for the stamp
cancellation/grand opening. Bob Johannsen, who had designed the River
Forest village hall at 400 Park Ave., was joined by others from FGM
Architects, Jack Kressel and Frank Sugino. The firm designed the new
south Oak Park post office.

Stuper, who said he grew up in south Oak Park, said the south branch
opened in 816 S. Oak Park Ave. and moved in 1958 to a storefront at 917
S. Oak Park Ave. When a real estate company moved out of the space next
door, the post office had the connecting wall knocked down and expanded
into two storefronts. The operation quickly outgrew that space also,
however, and during its years on Oak Park Avenue the south post office
offered no parking for employees, little parking for customers and not
much room for operations in about 2,500 square feet of space.

In 1988, Stuper remembered, the Postal Service had a deal to move the
south branch to properties it had agreed to acquire on Roosevelt Road
near Oak Park Avenue. But an omnibus bill passed by the U.S. Congress
that year took away the funding needed to make the move and construct a
new south post office. In the succeeding years, efforts continued to be
unsuccessful at finding a new, larger location for the south Oak Park
post office.

Finally in 1998, a deal was worked out for the Postal Service to
purchase the 1116 Garfield St. property--which backs up to the
Eisenhower Expressway and which Oak Park village government had failed
in attempts to revitalize as a tax-paying development. The CSX
transportation company and and a succession of village government
administrations could not reach agreement to bring a new development, so
instead of revenue-generating business such as a hotel and a car
dealership--two uses for the Harlem-Garfield site once proposed--the tax
exempt post office moved into the area.

"Welcome to this 21st Century building," Pusateri told the audience of
about 30 during Friday's grand opening of the new facility, which holds
approximately 20,000 square feet. About 30,000 "postal customers" in the
Oak Park area had been invited to the ceremonies by a mass mailing, but
chairs were reserved for only 30. "South Oak Park has its own real post
office," Pusateri said.

The new south Oak Park post office facility opened on Nov. 8, 1999 and
includes new parking for trucks, employees and customers, plus new mail
processing facilities and a new postal retail store. None of that was
possible in the cramped Oak Park Avenue location, and village hall
officials have said the parking for employees and delivery trucks to the
east of the post office building is the largest one-level site for
parking in Oak Park.

Pusateri said the changes in the south Oak Park post office resemble the
overall changes in the postal service. Some 100 years ago, Pusateri
said, mail delivery was carried out on horseback, the post office was a
patronage hiring haven and the service was subsidized by federal taxes.
None of that exists today, Pusateri said, as the U.S. Postal Service is
a "quasi-independent" company separate from the federal government that
takes no tax money, does hiring and promotion based on merit testing and
delivers mail using trucks and jet planes.

"This building was built customer-friendly," Pusateri said about the
south Oak Park post office. Authorities also on Friday cut a ceremonial
ribbon to officially open the retail store in the south station. Doing
the honors were district manager Stuper, postmaster Pusateri, district
manager Kikuchi and Village Clerk Sokol.

Stuper said the postal service and local officials worked hard to keep
costs for the new south Post Office under $5 million. Had they gone over
that amount, decisions regarding the new building would have not been
made at the local level. Officials believed that local postal
authorities would know best how to serve the south Oak Park market.