WESTLOCK – Busby-area residents have stepped up to save the community’s Canada Post outlet and have already put their money where their mouths are and have donated thousands of dollars to help convert a portion of the hamlet’s community hall to serve as a post office.
Roughly 130 residents packed the Busby Community Hall March 6 for an “emergency meeting” called by the Busby Community League to figure out how to save the facility as its current location within the Pizza Dome — previously the Busy Bee Mart — has closed and is up for sale.
League president Jen Stoby said after two hours of discussion, the league unanimously decided to renovate a portion of the hall to serve as the post office and will collect funds from the postal users to help pay for it. While renovating the hall’s table storage area will cost somewhere in the neighbourhood of $10,000 to $12,000, Stoby confirmed that by the end of the night that they had collected roughly half of the needed funds.
Stoby said the closure of the Pickardville Post Office Sept. 29, 2022, after 115 years of operation was definitely top of mind for the community 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.
“It’s impressive that our community was able to come together and try and save our post office,” said Stoby the day after the meeting. “And I think that if other communities feel that they’re going to lose their post office or something else that’s important to them, they just need to get together and do something about it. Your post office is not much different than losing your school or losing your hall — it’s part of the lifeblood of the community.
“Personally, I think that our county, our province and the federal government need to step up and support our rural communities better, because if they don’t, people aren’t going to want to move to them because they don’t have the services that they want.”
Westlock County Div. 2 Coun. Jared Stitsen, a lifelong resident of the area who collects his mail in Busby, was at the meeting and said he too was taken a back, but not shocked by the outpouring of support.
“People were throwing in money last night left, right and centre. I think last night was a testament to what our community can do … if there’s a big project sometimes it gets pushed down to the wire, but we get it done,” said Stitsen. “It’s no different than the fire hall as the community came together and volunteers built it — there wasn’t any county money in it.”
Renovations are only part of the equation, as Stoby said the current postmaster’s lease at the Pizza Dome expires March 31 and they’ve asked for an extension from the landowner and are working with Canada Post “as we don’t want to do the renovations and then hear from them that it’s not possible.”
“And the reason we pushed this through is that our hope is to be ready by March 31, but we’re not sure … if the landowner doesn’t extend the lease, then there may be some disruption in service.”
Those looking to donate or have other questions can contact Stoby directly at 780-940-3563, while donation cheques should be made payable to the Busby Community League and left at the post office. Donations can also be made via e-transfer to [email protected], while those looking to make a cash donation can contact Dot Gagne at 780-349-1727.
“We stressed to the people at the meeting, that they need to get involved even more than just coming to a meeting to save the post office,” Stoby added. “We still need people to sit on our executive and come to our work bees and help plan our events and I’m hoping that people heard that last night and become more involved in the community.”
