Topeka ? Communities across Kansas will learn Friday which of the state’s 56 National Guard armories will be closed.

Maj. Gen. Tod Bunting, the state’s adjutant general, announced last month that 18 facilities will be closed as a result of the most recent round of state budget cuts.

The moves will save nearly $157,000 in the fiscal year that ends June 30, and more than $260,000 in the following year.

Operations will be consolidated at the remaining 38 armories. Equipment and personnel will be transferred to those locations through the middle of 2010.

Bunting says the communities that will see closures will be notified Thursday and Friday before the public announcement.