WATERBURY, Vt. (AP) -Town residents are rallying behind a popular clerk at the local U.S. Post Office who is fighting a transfer to another post office 25 miles away.

The U.S. Postal Service says it is reducing clerks at the Waterbury post office from two full-timers and two part-timers to one full-timer and three part-timers. With 18 years on the job, Ellen Bardin is the junior of the two full-time clerks and has been ordered to transfer.

Bardin does not own a car, is visually impaired and can’t drive in darkness, something the job change would require, she maintains. In a suit filed at U.S. District Court in Burlington, she also maintains she has been the victim of sexual harassment at work.

Local residents say their aim is keeping Bardin in Waterbury and keeping current staffing levels at the post office to ensure service quality. They call Bardin knowledgeable and efficient and, best of all, a positive, smiling presence.

“She is one very special person,” said Waterbury resident Joan Lamere. “We find her work to be exceptional. She makes going to the post office fun.”

About 40 people rallied for Bardin outside the post office on Saturday.

Bardin maintains in court papers that her problems at work started shortly after she complained of a letter carrier inappropriately touching her.

Her supervisors resisted the complaint, she says, adding that a pattern of harassment soon began. She was kept out of training sessions and not told of decisions and policy changes, she says. Managers would not let her talk with customers who asked for her, and customer compliments were turned into complaints. She has filed numerous grievances.

In court on Thursday, she told Judge William Sessions III that she loves her customers and doesn’t want to move. “Waterbury is my community, as corny as it sounds,” Bardin said.

About 1,000 local residents had signed a petition by week’s end demanding that Bardin be left where she is. Vermont’s congressional delegation has entered the fray on her behalf.

In court Thursday, Timothy Tomasi, an assistant U.S. attorney representing the Postal Service, said Bardin is an exemplary employee. But he said Postal Service rules and union contracts require her to take the transfer. “The sole controlling factor is seniority,” he said.