The United Postal Service will go forward with a plan to transfer some operations of a South Charleston mail facility to Pennsylvania, the agency announced Tuesday.

The Charleston Processing and Distribution Center will stay open, but transition to a local processing center. Mail processing outgoing operations will be transferred to both the Pittsburgh Processing and Distribution Center and the Pennwood Place Processing and Distribution Center in Warrendale, Pennsylvania, according to the release.

The facility’s transition is part of the postal service’s 10-year “Delivering for America” plan to improve organizational and operational and make the agency efficient.

The proposal to change the facility was first announced last fall. An estimated 180 people attended a contentious Feb. 14 public meeting about the proposed changes. Several postal service employees and their supporters spoke against the changes and argued it would slow delivery of the mail.

According to an executive summary of the project from the postal service, the changes will result in 23 net position losses and one managerial role loss. None of the losses will be what the postal service refers to as “career” positions.

A total of 41 “career” positions and four management positions, in addition to non-career jobs, will be transferred out of the South Charleston facility.

Tim Holstein, vice president of the American Postal Workers Union local 133, said the union is upset about the decision. The postal service has “shown negligence” throughout the whole process, he said.

“There’s contradictions all the way through,” Holstein said. “There’s problems with the timeline that they were supposed to follow all the way through from the very beginning. The union as well as the public, we don’t know what to expect with what’s going to happen with the service. What’s going to happen with the jobs? We’re basically taking this day by day.

Holstein said the postal service has construed the information about the transition in a way that makes it easy for the community here to accept.

In a news release Tuesday, the postal service touted a $22.8 million investment in the facility to expand and streamline mail processing and distribution, including $10.8 million for modernization and deferred maintenance.

In statements Tuesday and Wednesday members of West Virginia’s congressional delegation expressed disappointment in the post service’s decision.

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, called it “a slap in the face” to everyone who attended the Feb. 14 public meeting and an injustice to the people who work at the facility.

“It is also economically irresponsible,” Manchin said. “Every piece of our mail will now have to travel hundreds of miles from Charleston to Pittsburgh, where both the cost of living and operating a facility are significantly higher, and then back to West Virginia. Simply put, the assertion by the Postal Service that their decision will improve service for West Virginians is completely false.”

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-West Virginia, said she was disappointed in the decision to shrink the facility.

“It is also very disappointing to see the number of jobs impacted by these changes has grown from USPS’s initial findings,” Capito said. “With over 2,800 public comments submitted by West Virginians, I do wish USPS had listened and taken those concerns into account fully. There are still many unanswered questions for USPS about their final decision that I plan to make sure are answered. I will continue fighting for this facility’s future.”

Rep. Carol Miller, R-West Virginia, said she’s encouraged by the agency’s commitment to improve the Charleston Processing Center’s infrastructure, but she’s concerned with the decision to convert the facility to a local processing center.

“With this pronouncement, our mail will now have to leave West Virginia to go to Pittsburgh, just to come back to West Virginia again. This could result in delays that have life-threatening consequences for those who receive medication in the mail,” Miller said. “I also have concerns that this decision to scale back services will impact West Virginian postal worker jobs. When I visited the facility last week, I was abundantly clear that postal services and jobs should remain in West Virginia, and I will continue to advocate for this on behalf of my constituents.”