Mail Processing Center Will Close

The Customer Service Mail Processing Center in is among the more than 200 mail processing facilities that face closure or consolidation.

The U.S. Postal Service announced today the completion of the Area Mail Processing consolidation studies on 264 processing centers across the nation that started more than five months ago.

As a result of the studies, 223 facilities face closure or consolidation, while 35 locations remain open and six are pending further study.

In north Georgia, the changes mean processing now done in Acworth, Athens, Cartersville, Douglasville and Marietta will be shifted to Duluth, according to a CBS story.

The number of employees at the centers varies, said USPS spokesman Michael Miles said. The Marietta facility employs 31 people while the Athens center, 18. 

The move won't affect the , Miles said..

Mail processing centers are separate from the USPS retail locations, and deal with the behind the scenes operations. The USPS suggests that cutting some of these satellite processing centers is a necessary step to help return the Postal Service to profitability.

The number of employees at the centers varies, Miles said. The Marietta facility employs 31 people while the Athens center, 18, according to CBS.

The Postal Service states that the organization is in the midst of a financial crisis due to economic recession, increased use of electronic communications, and obligation to prefund retiree health benefits.

In response to its lost revenue and a forecasted $14.1 billion record loss by the end of this year, the Postal Service developed a comprehensive plan to reduce operating costs by $20 billion by 2015, including such changes as closing mail processing centers.