The United States Postal Service once again is considering closing down the Manasota Mailing and Distribution Center, a move that could cost more than 100 jobs in the region as mail is redirected through Fort Myers. Now, officials in the office of Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Sarasota, are lobbying to have facilities in Fort Myers closed instead.

“We will continue to make our case that the postal service would save more money and maintain reliable service and good paying jobs for our constituents by transferring work from the Fort Myers facility and the Manasota and Tampa distribution centers,” said Sally Tibbetts, district director for Buchanan. “According to recent Area Mail Processing studies, the postal service could save approximately $15.8 million by transferring mail processing operations from the Fort Myers PDC to the Manasota and Tampa PDCs, nearly twice as much as the $8.5 million in annual savings estimated from consolidating the Manasota PDC into the Fort Myers PDC.” 

The USPS has considered closing the Manasota facility before, issuing out notices in January 2013 that the center, located near the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport, would be shuttered no later than February this year. But the complete implementation of a nationwide consolidation plan was delayed, sparing the Manasota facility in the short term.

But on Monday, USPS announced it would begin consolidations again, closing 82 facilities starting in January and finishing by Fall 2015.

The justification then was the growing financial hardships of the digital age for a service built on small parcel mail. The USPS suffered financial losses of more than $26 billion over the past three years, according to USPS spokeswoman Enola Rice.

“The U.S. Postal Service is facing one of the most difficult challenges In Its history,” wrote USPS manager Patrick Devine at the time. “The current economic downturn and continued Internet diversion has led to historically large deficits. As a result, the Postal Service is not receiving enough revenue to sustain the cost of its processing and delivery network.”

Rice said while the work will be shifted, individuals working at closing facilities won’t necessarily be left unemployed. “In 2012 and 2013, the Postal Service consolidated 141 mail processing facilities,” she said. “This rationalization of our network was highly successful, resulted in negligible service impact, required no employee layoffs and generates annual cost savings of approximately $865 million. The Postal Service expects the completion of network rationalization will generate an additional $750 million in annual savings.”