WESTLOCK – Busby-area residents have rallied to save the hamlet’s Canada Post outlet as nearly $20K has been donated to renovate its soon-to-be-new home within the Busby Community Hall.
Busby Community League president Jen Stoby said that as of March 30, the community has kicked in roughly $19,000 to the cause, well above the $10,000 to $12,000 that they had initially estimated they’d need, and they’re currently working on getting the necessary building permits secured to start renovations on the hall’s table storage area. In addition, the postmaster has received an extension on the lease for the outlet’s current location at the shuttered Pizza Dome, which is currently up for sale, and they’ve targeted April 30 to be in their new space.
“We first thought that maybe it would be March 31, but she (the postmaster) was able to get an extension on her lease, so we thought it would be best to have that extra time. We’re still getting development permits in place, but as far as the contractors, that’s all in the works,” she said.
“It’s really quite impressive how it’s all come together.”
It’s been a whirlwind of a month as on March 6 the league hosted an “emergency meeting” in effort to save the community’s Canada Post outlet which had been in danger of closing permanently. That night roughly 130 residents packed the hall and by the end of the two-hour meeting, the league had unanimously decided to renovate a portion of the facility to serve as the post office and the community had pledged roughly $6,000.
In a past interview, Stoby said the closure of the Pickardville Post Office on Sept. 29, 2022, after 115 years of operation, was definitely top of mind for residents as they realized that “if we didn’t do something now, we probably won’t ever have it again” — while Canada Post has said it wants to reopen an outlet in Pickardville, residents continue to get their mail in Westlock.
Stoby, while noting the extraordinary outpouring of support from around the Busby area, gave a special shout-out to the Dunstable Historical Society “for an extremely generous donation” of $3,000 — the society has also pledged that all proceeds from the sales of their history books in Busby will be turned over to the league.
And although they’ve surpassed their fundraising goal beyond what they estimated for renovations, Stoby noted that any extra dollars will go to “keeping the hall viable.” Going forward, she said they’ll be adding a timed-locking door system at the new site for “security purposes” to allow people to access their mail after regular hours.
“If we don’t have a hall, we won’t have a post office, so any extra money will be used for upkeep and even just paying utilities. And most people who have contributed are more than fine with that,” she said.
