Mayor Chuck Shaheen said Monday night he's going to enlist the help of Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson and U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall in an effort to keep open the North Davis Drive U.S. Post Office.

The City Council approved a resolution calling for the U.S. Postal

Service to "reconsider and rescind" its decision to shutter the

facility at 200 North Davis Drive, which has been open since 1960.

"Closing the post office would be detrimental" to the quality of life in eastern and northern Warner Robins, the resolution read, noting there were options available in the area for other sites. Notices of the impending Feb. 12 closure have been up for about two weeks. A Postal Service spokesman has said it was unable to work a favorable lease agreement.

"I'm going to get Sen. Chambliss, Sen. Isakson and Rep. Marshall to help us," Shaheen said at Monday's council meeting as those attending broke out in applause. "We're going to work with federal authorities as much as we can. We're a growing city of 60,000 and we need it."

Mayor Pro Tem Bob Wilbanks said it was "ridiculous" to close the

facility, and that the increased traffic at the Russell Parkway post

office would pose a danger to pedestrians and drivers.

"This is a disservice to area residents," Wilbanks said.

The facility's main customers are senior citizens and minorities, said council member Daron Lee, adding that the issue of demographics is at work here.

"It's taking away from them the ability to use the post office," Lee said. "This affects that area pretty hard. The truth is the truth."

Before the council's work session Monday afternoon, fired city clerk Stan Martin addressed the council in a bid to clear his name.

Martin and technology assistant Christine Armstrong were dismissed in late December, accused of trying to break into the mayor's office after normal business hours. Martin said he was trying to reassure Armstrong there was no truth to a rumor that former Mayor Donald Walker, who committed suicide in late September, had concealed money and firearms in the

ceiling above his office. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation investigated the October incident, and after reading the GBI report a Houston County Grand Jury cleared Martin of any wrongdoing.

Martin noted he was fired for "conduct unbecoming," but questioned the validity of the charge.

"When did helping reassure another employee or inspecting the building you were responsible for become conduct unbecoming?" he asked. "Christine and I had the permission and the right to be where we were."

He went on to say that former Mayor John Havrilla and City Attorney Jim Elliott Jr. engaged in conduct unbecoming when they shredded files found behind the mayor's office without notifying the Walker family, the city records clerk or law enforcement.

The current mayor and council had an opportunity to "right this wrong," Martin said, "but it has ignored me and basic principles of justice, fairness, right and wrong."

He ended his 12-minute plea by thanking the council for its time and attention. Shaheen ended a seemingly awkward silence in the council workroom by calling for a 10-minute break before returning to a work session.