It’s never easy to report on the loss of jobs in Western Tidewater, especially in a community that has been through so much.

Tuesday’s announcement for the pending closure of Money Mailer at Pretlow Industrial Park in Franklin was sad news.

The printing and direct mail production facility was the only tenant in the city-owned industrial park and had been there for nine years. The closing casts a shadow on a local economy that seemed to be picking up.

We look now to the partnership formed in July between the city, Franklin Southampton Economic Development Inc. and the Hollingsworth Companies to market the park in hopes of garnering national attention.

The three-year contract that will allow Hollingsworth to prepare some of Pretlow’s properties for development will cost $18,000 a year. FSEDI, the area’s lead economic development agency, will pick up the tab the first year.

We think the agreement will prove valuable. We hope this contract will help replace the 100 jobs lost at Money Mailer and add more.

There’s hope those jobs will be replaced.