CHARLESTON, W.Va. The U.S. Postal Service said Thursday it plans to close three mail-processing centers and eliminate approximately 1,490 jobs in West Virginia, Indiana and Arizona.

The closures are the latest round of cuts to operations begun on a temporary basis in 1999, when the Postal Service opened 55 centers to process hand-addressed mail that couldn't be read by optical scanners, spokeswoman Freda Sauter said. At the time, scanners read just 2 percent of handwritten addresses, compared with 95 percent today.

Centers in Charleston and Fort Wayne, Ind., are scheduled to close in October, while the Glendale, Ariz., operation will close in May 2010, Sauter said. Centers in Salt Lake City and Wichita, Kan., will remain open.

The Charleston center employs 345 people, while 415 work in Fort Wayne and 728 in Glendale.