The time for comment regarding the U.S. Postal Service's plan to move Wheeling's mail processing operations to Pittsburgh is over. Now residents just have to wait to see if the Friendly City will lose its postmark.

"I am sure they will make some kind of a decision pretty soon," said Don Bentz, president of the Wheeling Area Local of the American Postal Workers Union, acknowledging Thursday was the last day to mail comments to the postal service.

On Jan. 13, Bentz and about 100 concerned residents and postal workers voiced strong opposition to the postal service's proposal during a public hearing at Wheeling Park High School. Though postal officials said they could save $527,000 annually by moving Wheeling's mail operations to Pittsburgh for Area Mail Processing, residents and workers disagreed.

Western Pennsylvania District Manager Charles P. McCreadie said the struggling organization can save the $527,000 by making the move, noting six employee positions will be affected under the proposal. The jobs would not be lost but moved, he said.

Jim Tysk, vice president of the Wheeling Area Local of the American Postal Workers Union, suggested during the Jan. 13 meeting that Wheeling's postal operations should be expanded, rather than reduced. He also wondered how the postal service could save the $527,000 by making the move because service officials said they will not be cutting employees.

"It looks to me like we have great people in the right places in Wheeling, W.Va. ... Wheeling is more efficient than Pittsburgh," he said at the time, referring to productivity levels in the Wheeling office.

Wheeling City Council members agreed with Tysk, later adopting a resolution supporting the concept of expanding postal work in the Friendly City, rather than contracting it.

In addition to the city's action, U.S. Sens. Robert C. Byrd and Jay Rockefeller, along with Congressman Alan Mollohan, all D-W.Va., have sent letters of objection to the postal service's plan.

Postal service spokesman Tad Kelley said his organization is now reviewing all of the comments and information provided.

"It can take, conservatively, a month or two from when we held the public meeting before a decision would be available, given the complexity of the information to be reviewed," he said via e-mail Friday. "No two AMPs are the same, so estimates are the best I can provide you."

Though Kelley has emphasized Wheeling customers will still be able to get the city's postmark by entering the post office to specifically request it, Bentz, Tysk and those at the public hearing wanted mail sent from Wheeling to receive the mark automatically.