The announcement that Kingsford mail processing operations will be consolidated with Green Bay, Wis., is not good news.

The U.S. Postal Service has been vague with details, but announced that Kingsford’s merger with Green Bay could begin in January and be completed by the fall of 2015.

The Postal Service estimated that 45 to 50 jobs could be affected.

We’ve been dreading this action since the U.S. Postal Service announced the possibility of closing area facilities in 2010.

The consolidation is not expected to affect retail service.

Area residents will still be able to visit the Kingsford Post Office for retail service, post office box service, daily mail delivery and business mail acceptance.

Additionally, Priority Express Mail for the 498 and 499 zip code areas will continue to be processed at the Kingsford center.

Mail processing duties, however, will be moved to Green Bay. Postal Service officials have estimated that consolidating Kingsford operations with Green Bay operations would save $5,275,046 annually.

Although postal employees will be reassigned in accordance with collective bargaining agreements, households will be disrupted and families will be uprooted.

Consolidation of the mail processing network is contingent on revisions to service standards, including the overnight standard for single-piece First-Class Mail.

Single-piece First-Class Mail standards would be modified nationwide from the current one- to five-day standard to a two- to five-day standard.

The current First-Class Mail standard from Kingsford is one day to zip codes 498 and 499 and three days to zip code 497.

After consolidation, the standard from Green Bay would be two days to zip codes 498 and 499.

This announcement to Kingsford city officials recently, is another piece of bad news in a series of pessimistic announcements from the Postal Service.

In 2010, the Postal Service sought to sell the Iron Mountain Post Office building. But after a resolution from Iron Mountain City Council, and opposition from U.S. Senator Carl Levin, the plan was scrapped.

“We decided to take it off the market,” Jim Mruk of the U.S. Postal Service’s Great Lakes Region announced in 2011. “There just wasn’t an interest in the property.”

The “For Sale” signs were then removed, and the Iron Mountain Post Office remains open today.

In 2012, Postal officials released a list of post offices that would were to reduce hours, including Channing, Felch, Foster City, Hermansville, Goodman, Amberg, Armstrong Creek, Quinnesec and Vulcan.

Also in 2012, the Kingsford consolidation plan was confirmed.

Jim Mruk, spokesman for the Postal Service Great Lakes Region, explained the issue in 2011.

According to Mruk, 35 percent of Postal Service business is now accessed from alternative locations such as the internet or retail stores.

In the Iron Mountain-Kingsford area, customers can purchase stamps and mail packages from Walgreens, WalMart, and Wells Fargo, said Mruk.

“It’s the trend of the future,” he added.