The New Castle mail processing facility, which the U.S. Postal Service was considering closing, will stay open.

Sen. Bob Casey and Rep. Jason Altmire joined state and local officials yesterday to announce that the postal service has decided not to combine the New Castle operation with the one in Pittsburgh.

The postal service said it would transfer the processing of a small portion of its mail to Pittsburgh. The 23 employees affected by that move will be offered other positions. The other 152 employees will remain.

Western Pennsylvania is one of 12 districts across the country in which the postal service is studying possible consolidations of its processing centers in the wake of declining mail volume.

The postal union opposed any attempt to close the New Castle center, which processes 1.75 million pieces of mail each day.

The postal service is still examining similar consolidations in California, Massachusetts, Texas and elsewhere.