A recent letter to the editor extols the many virtues of Battleford, and as a proud resident of the town I鈥檓 certainly not going to argue against her views. There is one thing North Battleford has that Battleford doesn鈥檛, however, and that is a functioning and accessible post office.
Canada Post has closed the more than 100-year-old post office in downtown Battleford and are currently operating, if you can call it that, out of the former Hillcrest Centre on 24th Street.
It appears Canada Post has no interest in dealing with the health and safety issues at the old building. Issues they say are a result of a bat infestation. It should be noted that problem isn鈥檛 a new one. In 2006 Communities In Bloom attempts to have the clock in the building restarted were thwarted due to concerns about the bats.
Instead of working to solve the problem, Canada Post has been granted a building permit to do $30,000 worth of renovations at the House of Kwon. While it will be good to see that long vacant site put to use, it is tragic to think a historic building, the oldest serving post office outlet in Canada, will be left to moulder and fall into further disrepair.
This piece of history must be preserved. It could be said Battleford has a better record of historic preservation than North Battleford, another item to add to the letter writer鈥檚 scorecard, but if we let the post office fall into the 鈥渦sed to be鈥� category we will certainly fall a few notches in that category.
Who will take responsibility? It doesn鈥檛 look like it will be Canada Post.
