By Paige Orr, FOX23.com News Staff
TULSA, Okla. — Imagine checking your mailbox for more than a week, finding absolutely nothing and having no one tell you why.
That is the reality once again for neighbors living along the 1000 block of North Irvington Avenue where the United States Postal Service has halted mail delivery due to loose dogs.
The suspension marks the second major disruption for the block in recent months.
While service was briefly restored, residents said deliveries were cut off again without any written warning notices delivered to their homes.
For the elderly and disabled residents living in the neighborhood—many of whom rely on housing programs and time-sensitive government benefits—the sudden lack of service presents severe challenges.
Resident Zakk Durham said the neighborhood was left completely in the dark when deliveries stopped again after a brief period of normalcy.
“Now, since the dog’s been seen out and about again, they’ve stopped delivering service for the last week or so,” said Durham. “They’ve given us no notification that we’re suspended again. Nothing.”
Durham noted that while carriers on surrounding streets continue to deliver mail regularly despite loose animals in the area, his block continues to face interruptions.
“The neighborhood is full of people that are disabled or elderly. Most of these people, once again, don’t even know their mail’s been disrupted.”
Durham said he has reached out to local and district postmasters, the Mayor’s Action Line, Tulsa Animal Welfare and District 3 City Councilor Jackie Dutton’s office, but said he feels like local agencies are failing to provide basic solutions.
“I’ve completely given up. This is the second largest city in Oklahoma and they can’t deliver basic services like mail delivery and animal control. I think it’s a complete lack of willingness to do their job.”
FOX23 reached out to the United States Postal Service, the City of Tulsa, Tulsa Animal Welfare and Councilor Jackie Dutton’s office for answers.
FOX23 emailed Dutton’s office last week and left a voicemail on Tuesday morning, but haven’t yet received a response.
USPS Strategic Communications Specialist Becky Hernandez provided the following full statement regarding the suspension:
“The safety of its employees and customers continues to be a priority for the United States Postal Service. In this particular case, mail delivery had resumed to residents in the referenced address range; however, it became necessary to temporarily suspend service last week due to the renewed presence of loose dogs in the delivery area. Local postal officials are diligently working to resolve this matter as quickly as possible, and continue to work with animal control for a resolution. Affected residents may pick up their mail at the Northeast Station, 5313 E. Independence Ave., Tulsa, OK 74115, from 8:30 a.m. — 5:00 p.m., Monday — Friday. As the letter carrier is unable to affect safe mail delivery, notices are being provided to residents when they pick up their mail. We offer a sincere apology for any inconvenience that may be experienced and appreciate our customer’s patience and understanding.”
City of Tulsa Senior Communications Officer Carson Colvin provided the following full statement on behalf of the city and Animal Services:
“Tulsa Animal Services has delivered tie outs and other resources to one person on this block, and they picked up another dog in early August. Since then, we have not had any other calls in this area about animals running at large. If there is a problem with continued animals at large, we ask folks, call Tulsa Animal Services at (918)-594-8001, I will say in the Mayor’s budget for this year, he directed more resources to go to TAS, which means more animal control officers in neighborhoods. We’re also working on some continued partnerships to do more about loose animals in several north Tulsa neighborhoods specifically, which we would be more than happy to talk about in the future when we’re able. We also really want to ask people participate in Fix It, Tulsa—our communitywide campaign to address pet overpopulation. People can learn more and see what resources are available online at www.cityoftulsa/FixIt.”
Residents on North Irvington Avenue said they feel ignored and simply want basic municipal and postal services restored safely to their street.
