Frustration is building in Harrowsmith as residents haven’t had mail delivery in over a week.
Brenda Crawford and many of her fellow residents have been without their normal mail delivery since their community mailboxes were rendered useless by a combination of snow, sleet, rocks, dirt and sand.
The mailboxes have lived outdoors at Centennial Park in Harrowsmith since the mid-2000s, but for over a week now, the boxes have been effectively glued shut.
Crawford contacted Canada Post, who said they would have it fixed but, since then have been silent.
“Nobody seems to know what’s going on, when mail will be restored,” said Crawford.
Global News reached out to Canada Post on Feb. 2 asking whether anything was being done about the mailboxes, but didn’t receive a response before our initial deadline.
In an email sent to Global News Feb. 6, Canada Post said initial efforts to fix the problems by cleaning the mailbox’s locks were unsuccessful and the plan now is to replace the locks all together.
That work is expected to be completed by the week or early next week, Canada Post said in their Feb. 6 reply.
In the interim, residents have been told by Canada Post to pick up their mail at a post office in Verona almost 10 kilometres North.
There used to be a post office right in Harrowsmith in the building now occupied by the Harrowsmith Business Centre.
Owners Mary and Laurie Greenidge say they reached out to Canada Post, offering to host the post office in their building, they even still have the original sign and door handles, but it was to no avail.
“They even came out and inspected and told us that it was totally against their policies to go back into a former post office building,” said Greenidge.
Even if those outdoor mailboxes were working properly, many residents would prefer a safer solution.
“I came up here approximately two weeks ago, and thank god somebody came by because I was down on my knees. It was just pure ice up here,” said Ann Elvins, a resident of the village.
“The winter is the worst, because sometimes your key gets frozen in there, or the boxes just don’t open,” added Greenidge.
Even if their mail service is restored to what it was before, the residents of Harrowsmith said it simply isn’t sustainable.
“If they insist on keeping it up here, at least put a cover over it,” added Elvins. “I would like to see Canada Post honour what they promised when they took our post office away, which was this was a temporary situation,” said Crawford.
Now, they’re left hoping that the 10-kilometre detour to get their mail is only temporary and something only time and weather will determine.
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