Super mailbox installation leads to standoff

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The battle between the city of Hamilton and Canada Post continued today, as a city hall staff member stood in the way of contractors looking to install a new community mailbox.

It’s the latest in an ongoing series of flare-ups over the crown corporation’s move away from home delivery.

Councillor Terry Whitehead isn’t the only person in city hall looking to halt the installation of community mailboxes. Special projects co-ordinator Howard Rabb staged a standoff of sorts.

“I asked them to stop and when they didn’t want to stop, I just stepped into the hole and said ‘this is the situation, call your boss.'”

Rabb’s actions come a day after contractors installing community mailboxes cut residents’ hydro and sprinkler lines. His boss, councillor Whitehead, asked the public to inform him when unpermitted installations were taking place.

“As of yesterday we attended to a number of sites and provided proof of a work stop order for a particular company, the McGlaughan group that was embarking on putting Canada Post super mailboxes in particular locations.”

As the issue heads to superior court on May 25, councillor Whitehead has been told that installations will continue. “It’s pretty clear that they want to drive this down our throat before any conditions are rendered.”

Canada Post spokesperson Jon Hamilton told CHCH News, “The laws, the guidelines, the approach that we’ve taken when installing community mailboxes in Hamilton and across the country in the last 30 years are the same. Nothing’s changed and we’re going to continue to do what we have to do.”

Residents living on Highland Rd W in Stoney Creek already get their mail from pre-existing super mailboxes and they tell CHCH News that traffic is already a headache. They are not looking forward to potentially another mailbox being put up across the way on a much narrower street.”

“During the day there are a lot of kids around and i can see a lot of chaos happening with a lot of people pulling over to get to this mailbox – there must be a half a dozen school buses that come through here and it’s a single lane. So come winter time I don’t know how anyone is going to pass this at 5 o’clock when people are parked trying to get their mail.”

Judging by their reaction, it seems councillor Whitehead won’t have Howard Rabb stepping into any holes anytime soon. “It seems there are enough people in the community volunteering and coming to the forefront.”

Nothing bad will happen to Rabb but Whitehead said that he’s been instructed that he, like the councillor should be behind the scenes, not become the news.