Mail delivery changing in Enchant hamlet

By Cole Parkinson
Vauxhall Advance
cparkinson@tabertimes.com

Municipal District of Taber residents living in the Village of Enchant will soon be receiving their mail in a different way than in the past.

With the sale of the Enchant General Store and the new owners not wanting to take over as a Canada Post outlet, there has been talks of bringing in community mail boxes.

“In Enchant the general store, who was running the Canada Post outlet, has been sold and the new owners do not want to take on Canada Post. We were looking at viable options to keep the mail in the community and what we’re proposing is to have the mail delivered into Vauxhall, have somebody there sort the mail and then deliver them to community mailboxes just outside of the general store in Enchant and taking the parcels back to Vauxhall that won’t fit,” said Tracey Stickel, Canada Post superintendent for the Lethbridge area.

Parcels that are too big or require a signature would need to be picked up in Vauxhall but the delegation from Canada Post was confident that there would be a way to organize a meet up at the community mail boxes to pick up the parcels.

The parcel boxes though will be fairly large and will be able to accommodate most parcels as long as they don’t require a signature.

“With the parcel compartments, in the community mail boxes you can fit quite a few parcels. They will be getting the new community mail boxes which are more secure and the parcel compartments are bigger. You can fit a lot of mail in those ones. Anything that needs a signature, those coming out of Vauxhall quite often in these cases they will set up with the person. I’m really not foreseeing that be much of a problem, the postmaster at Vauxhall has told me that people were already going there looking for mailboxes in Vauxhall,” said Jill Broderson, Canada Post superintendent for the Brooks area.

While the addition of mail boxes to Enchant will be a change for everyone, the two say the change is almost always liked better than the outlets at least in their experience with other similar communities.

With the boxes people will have 24 hour access to their mail instead of the traditional open to close of the outlet and postal codes will remain the same.

Location of the post boxes was also a big reason for the visit to M.D. council chambers as they wanted to keep it on Centre Street and near the store.

Another factor they wanted to keep in mind when placing the boxes was to have it in a well lit area.

“Right outside the community centre, that’s the proposed spot,” added Stickel.

The playground area right beside the community centre has been looked at as the most viable and community friendly due to it being right on the main drag of Enchant and it also has plenty of light during the nighttime.

The biggest issue presenting itself is water lines near the sidewalk but council was confident they could be moved to accommodate the new box but they would ask staff to access the situation and they would get back to Canada Post on what will be required.

Contractors will be hired to place the community mail box with an estimated arrival date in the four to six week range. In the meantime though Enchant citizens can continue to pick up their mail as they have been.

“The new owners of the store have agreed to let her (Lorna, former owner) come in until this is all figured out,” said Stickel.

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