The U.S. Postal Service will close its mail processing center in Colorado Springs, affecting 250 employees and meaning no more first-class overnight mail delivery in the city.

A closing date for the center, 3655 E. Fountain Blvd., has not been set, but it will not be before May 15, said David Rupert, Postal Service spokesman for Colorado.

He said about 250 employees work in the processing center; another 107 employees who work at the Fountain Boulevard facility handling local bulk mail and other duties will remain. The Postal Service will meet with the employees’ union to determine options for the affected workers, including possible transfers to other jobs in the facility or in other cities, he said.

The Postal Service will move the processing work to Denver, saying it needs to reduce the size of its mail processing network and eliminate facilities not fully used.

“We’re closing this to be more efficient,” Rupert said.

The center’s closing hinges on a favorable opinion from the Postal Regulatory Commission to change the Postal Service’s so-called “service standard” to two-day delivery for local mail, Rupert said.

Thursday’s announcement about the Colorado Springs center is part of plans to cut more than 260 mail processing centers around the nation, part of a billion-dollar cost-cutting effort. Three other Colorado centers — in Alamosa, Durango and Salida — also will close.

The agency said it had completed a review of closings it had proposed last fall. Based on community input and other factors, the post office said, it will move forward with consolidations involving virtually all of the 252 facilities on the list, as well as up to 12 new locations, beginning in mid-May.

Of the 264 facilities, 41 won’t be closed or consolidated right away as the post office conducts additional reviews.

The consolidations are expected to result in a loss of roughly 35,000 jobs, which the post office hopes to achieve mainly through attrition.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who is pushing for legislative changes that would stop or delay mass closings of mail processing centers, described the proposed closings as counterproductive. He and 26 other senators recently signed a letter to congressional sponsors of postal legislation seeking to prevent cuts to first-class mail delivery.

“At a time when the Postal Service is competing against the instantaneous delivery of information from email and the Internet, slowing down mail delivery service will result in less business and less revenue, and will bring about a death spiral for this institution,” Sanders said.The Associated Press contributed to this report.

In this Feb. 8, 2012, photo, Postmaster Maria Carrasco sorts Valentine Day cards for mailing at the Valentine Post Office in Valentine, Texas. (AP Photo/Odessa American, Albert Cesare) Photo by MBR

Albert Cesare