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With the clock ticking on the closure of the existing postal service in Muenster, community members gathered on Monday, March 31 at the local curling club to listen to options for retaining the valued service in the community.
One option quickly caught the assembled eyes and ears as an appealing possibility.
Following a canvas of local businesses by enterprising community member Kim Loehr, local businessman Joe Scheiber was approached with the possibility of stepping in with one of his properties located in Muenster as a new home for a retail postal outlet (RPO).
Canada Post regulations stipulate that an RPO can be present only in a business operation, and since the footprints of Scheiber’s existing properties were not suitable and there were no businesses operating there, it was time to take another tack.
The village of St. Gregor faced the similar prospect of losing their post office years ago when the business housing the RPO closed without warning. At that time, Brad Michel and a group of forward-thinking residents stepped in to establish a coffee shop style business, the St. Gregor Store, as an outlet for the post office. The location is in a seniors’ centre in the village.
“Our post office was in danger of being taken away,” explained Michel, “And we found out from Canada Post that a business has to own the post office, so we had to set up a business essentially to run the post office and make it happen.
Michel and the St. Gregor committee conferred with Scheiber to support a solution.
Scheiber entered into talks with Muenster business owner Shauna Ilg of the Shampoo Shack on Railway Avenue, a central location in Muenster, for purchase of her building. The hairstyling business remaining in the same space as a tenant. A new committee was struck to approach Canada Post about having the St. Gregor Store extend its reach to Muenster and operate the RPO in its new location. With some support of in-kind labour in Muenster, Scheiber said he was willing to purchase the building and cover the costs of retrofitting it, with room for both the Shampoo Shack and the mailboxes and space for a new RPO.
Planning continues as the purchase of the building remains in progress and as the new Muenster and St. Gregor Committee awaits a decision from Canada Post on the proposal.
“I heard that Muenster could be losing their post office, and I just said no way, that can’t happen,” said Scheiber on the motivation for his offer. “I looked at the buildings I already owned in Muenster; I could not make the space work. So, I looked at buying another building, and that’s why I did it.
While Scheiber lives in Humboldt and uses postal services there, he’s a die-hard Muensterite with strong ties to the community and an obvious willingness to engage in creative solutions.
Other options explored at the meeting included returning the RPO to a former site at St. Peter’s Abbey and running it in tandem with St. Gregor Store, or simply applying for outdoor mailbox delivery and forsaking parcel pick-up and drop off services. That would have seen residents purchasing Canada Post stamps and products in other places like Humboldt.
The community agreed on the desire for continued postal service given Muenster’s potential for continued growth and voted approval for the proposal put forward by Scheiber, Michel and Ilg. Additional costs for postal operations would be handled by community donations.
Muenster residents will receive a flyer in their mailbox outlining the new service once all the approvals have been granted. The hope is to have the new RPO established by the impending closure date of the existing service at the end of April.