A new era has started for mail delivery in Estevan, with the onset of community mailboxes, but the conversion from door-to-door delivery has been panned by some residents.
Mail was delivered to the new community mailboxes starting on Aug. 17. Many Estevan residents were already receiving their mail through community mailboxes, and now the rest of the city has converted to the system.
Some are angry the mailboxes are on their property, or they believe they’re in unsafe locations.
They’re also upset with what they perceive as a lack of communication from Canada Post.
Warren Wilhelm has been among the biggest critics. He resides at 1205 8th Street, and one of the new mailboxes is on the south end of his property. Mounds of dirt from the installation process are clumped on his lawn, so the cleanup work isn’t finished, either.
Wilhelm said he spends a lot of time away from home due to work, so he wasn’t aware the mailboxes would be added to his yard until just before their installation.
“Nobody contacted me that they’re putting a mailbox there, so I wasn’t too happy about it,” Wilhelm told the Mercury.
He believes the structure should be located closer to the Estevan Leisure Centre, where it wouldn’t infringe on anyone’s property. He also suggested having the mailboxes closer to the intersection of Eighth Street and 13th Avenue, or near a sidewalk, which he believes would make it easier for people to collect their mail.
Wilhelm said when he contacted Canada Post, they told him that if he could find a suitable new location, they would move the mailbox. But the next time he contacted them, they said it was a closed file.
“There has been a lack of communication,” said Wilhelm.
He has since been told his case has been reopened. He had yet to receive word from Canada Post as of the afternoon of Aug. 23.
“Trying to get through to them is very frustrating,” said Wilhelm. “It’s like they know it’s coming, so they try to slough it off as much as they can.”
Wilhelm had door-to-door delivery until the change was implemented. He didn’t have a problem with the service. And he doesn’t have an issue with the community mailbox system; he just wishes the boxes were in another location.
He is worried about elderly people who have lost door-to-door mail delivery. Some of them have mobility issues, and it could be particularly tough to access their mail during the winter months.
Anick Losier, a spokesperson with Canada Post, said they selected the locations for the mailboxes after a 10-month process that began in October of last year.
“It started with an online survey,” said Losier. “We asked residents specific questions and concerns they may have about traffic, location, lighting, accessibility and what not.
“Then we took this information and overlaid it on our usual criteria for safety and accessibility, because we’ve been doing community mailboxes for over 30 years.”
Then they did a preliminary layout of potential sites, and consulted with municipalities.
Losier said they did consult with residents whose properties would be affected.
She said they won’t make everyone happy with the locations, but they wanted sites that are accessible and centralized for the people they serve.
Losier noted the sites that have not been cleaned up, such as the one on Wilhelm’s property, will be taken care of eventually. Canada Post’s priority has been installing the mailboxes so that delivery could begin Aug. 17.
Local resident Darcy Calder says there are three or four bad locations in the city, including the structure on Wilhelm’s property. He echoed Wilhelm’s belief that the mailbox should be located closer to the leisure centre. Calder also criticized the state of Wilhelm’s yard after the work was finished.
Calder is also concerned with boxes on 14th Avenue, between Fifth and Sixth Streets. Not only is it on a rental property he owns, it’s on the truck route, and the curb is painted yellow from Sixth Street to Fourth Street, meaning there’s no parking allowed.
“Whoever thought you should put a mailbox on a truck route, where there’s a solid yellow line, gave absolutely no thought to that,” said Calder.
It’s expected the mailbox will be moved to a more suitable location, but Calder said it should have never been there in the first place. He expects there will be additional expenses to move the community box, and the person who rents the property where the mailboxes are presently located is worried it will still be on his property.
Calder suggested it should be closer to the intersection of Fifth Street and 15th Avenue.
He is also concerned with the mailbox on Rooks Avenue, near the Hillcrest Early Learning Centre, because Rooks is a narrow road, it’s a busy street with a daycare and a school, and there isn’t much space for vehicles to get by.
The mailbox at the intersection of 12th Avenue and First Street, near the Churchill Playpark, should also be moved, he said.
Losier said they don’t want to relocate mailboxes, but if there’s an important issue that arises or that wasn’t identified previously, she urged people to call Canada Post’s customer service line at 1-844-454-3009, and let them know.
“It doesn’t mean that we’re going to change it right away, but we’re going to investigate the concern, and see if there’s another suitable location,” said Losier. “But it would need to be, at this point, a major issue, because we’ve been doing 10 months of consultation and work on this to find the most appropriate location, and most of the feedback has been received by now.”
Calder would like to see a garbage can next to the mailboxes, so people can deposit their junk mail. He is worried some will simply leave their junk mail on the ground. He has seen garbage cans near community mailboxes in B.C.
Losier said they have tried using recycling bins around community mailboxes in the past, but people would use them for litter, pet waste and other unwanted materials.
“Anybody who doesn’t want to have some of the mail that they do receive, we invite them to dispose of it at their recycling bin at home,” said Losier.
Calder is also disappointed with the lack of communication from Canada Post. Calls haven’t been returned, and he was discouraged from approaching the media.
But he is very impressed with the efforts of the local letter carriers. Calder said they have treated him with respect, and went out of their way to handle his concerns.
“It seems like it’s out of their hands, that everything is being put through by someone in … Ottawa,” said Calder.
Donna Schoff had a different reason to be frustrated. When she went to pick up her mail from the boxes on Pine Avenue on Aug. 17, she found both doors of the mailbox were wide open, leaving the mail accessible to the public.
She took a photo, and removed the mail from her mailbox. The mail actually belonged to her neighbour, so Schoff took it to the right address.
“I was just a little disturbed how I could see mail in all of the boxes, and everything was wide open to the public,” said Schoff.
The photo has been posted online, including Canada Post’s Facebook page.
Schoff said she hasn’t had any problems since that time.
Losier said Canada Post employees are still getting used to the system, so if anyone has a problem, they should contact the customer service line, so it can be addressed.
Mayor Roy Ludwig said he received complaints in his office about the community mailboxes, which he took to a representative of Canada Post. Those concerns were then forwarded to the postal company.
Ludwig noted that city engineer Kiflom Weldeab visited the proposed sites and suggested whether the mailboxes should be moved.
“I know our suggestions have not always been followed, but they have been listened to, and I know they looked at them,” said Ludwig.
The city continues to lobby Canada Post on the location of several mailboxes.
“At least in the final analysis and the final discussions, they have agreed it would be better to move them, because it was potentially a safety concern,” said Ludwig. “Of course, we would have rather they agreed with that before they put the boxes in.”
Canada Post announced in December 2013 that they would be phasing out door-to-door delivery in an effort to cut costs amid declining mail volumes.
Before the conversion process began, Canada Post had 1,093 addresses in Estevan served by community mailboxes and another 805 by an apartment lock box. They have converted 2,883 addresses from door-to-door delivery to the community mailbox system.
