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Closing of SunTrust branch will make Ridge Manor more "lonely."

 
Published March 22, 2017

RIDGE MANOR — Ridge Manor residents have long felt shunned by chain stores and county government.

"We do feel like we're treated like the stepchildren — out on the edge of the earth," said Anne Buckingham, 64, who has lived in the unincorporated community of 4,500 east of Brooksville since 1972.

Now, she said, Ridge Manor feels even more "lonely."

SunTrust Bank sent letters to customers last week informing them that its Ridge Manor branch in Sunrise Plaza — the community's only bank branch — will close at noon on June 13.

Though residents know the reality of banking business — that fewer transactions are made in person and more of them online — they say the closing will deprive the community of one of its few conveniences.

"Banking has changed, but we still have many elderly residents who like to do their banking in person, at the branch," said Lynn Gruber-White, president of the Ridge Manor Property Owner's Association, which is a customer.

"This means they have to go much further to do that, and that's extremely unfortunate."

A SunTrust spokesman, Hugh Suhr, didn't say exactly what factors had led to the closing, though in an email to the Times he wrote that the bank, which is based in Atlanta and operated 1,401 branches at the end of 2015, closed about 40 of them the following year. Though he said no other closures were planned in Hernando County, customers of one of the two branches on U.S. 19 in Spring Hill have also been told that it will be shuttered.

Such decisions, Suhr wrote, are based on factors "including, but not limited to, market growth, real estate arrangements and transaction volumes."

The bank is also responding to "increasing usage of newer delivery channels such as Internet banking and mobile banking," he wrote.

Accounts will be transferred to the main branch in Brooksville, or any other location customers choose.

That will leave residents in the same position with bank branches as they are with discount chains such as Wal-Mart — deciding whether to drive to Bushnell, Brooksville or Dade City to do business.

For Buckingham it will probably be Brooksville, "which is a 15-mile drive one-way" from her house, she said.

She sometimes banks online, but she prefers "to go in and see a friendly face and do my banking there," she said. "Everybody knows my name and they say, 'Hi Anne' when I come in," she said.

There is already a buzz of discontent on Facebook, Gruber said. Buckingham said half-jokingly that she might register her disapproval the way she does her banking — in person.

"I want to protest and convince them that we need a bank," she said. "I want to go in there at 11:30 (a.m.) on the day it closes and refuse to leave. Do a sit-in."

Contact Dan DeWitt at ddewitt@tampabay.com; follow @ddewitttimes.