The postal service will hold a public meeting at 6 p.m. tonight at West Middle School to discuss the possible closing of its mail processing facility on Liberty Street.
The Brockton facility at 225 Liberty St., which has 396 employees, is among seven mail-processing facilities in eastern Massachusetts that are being considered for closing or consolidation, said Dennis Tarmey, spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service.
The other facilities are in Boston, Lowell, North Reading, Shrewsbury, Waltham and Wareham. Postal officials are considering moving the mail operations to Providence to cut costs.
The meeting will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. tonight at West Middle School, 271 West St.
Mayor Linda Balzotti said she will attend the meeting to ask the postal service to reconsider closing the Liberty Street facility.
“We have such a difficult time right now with vacant real estate and unemployment. I just don’t want to have another empty building and more people out of work,” Balzotti said this afternoon. “It would be a real hardship on the community if that were to close.”
The postal service will solicit public comments at the meeting and for 15 days afterward.
People who cannot attend tonight’s meeting may also submit their comments in writing. Comments should be addressed to: Manager, Consumer and Industry, USPS Greater Boston District, 25 Dorchester Ave., Boston, MA 02205-0098. Comments must be postmarked by Jan. 19 to become part of the public record, Tarmey said.
The postal service is considering closing more than 250 processing centers around the country and may lay off up to 30,000 workers to trim $3 billion and avoid bankruptcy.
There is currently a moratorium on post office closings and plant closings until May 15, Tarmey said.
“No post office or plant would close before that date,” he said.
Maria Papadopoulos may be reached at mpapadopoulos@enterprisenews.com.
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