New location proposed for Belwood post office

BELWOOD ‒ Belwood residents may soon have a place closer to home to pick up their mail. 

With a tentative approval date of June 26, a new report coming to Centre Wellington council on Monday asks that councillors lease a portion of 8460 Wellington Road 19 in Belwood for the operation of a post office.  

That's the location of the West Garafraxa Public Works garage, which is in active use. The office portion of the proposed building is partially utilized for township records storage. 

Lora McFadden, the Belwood postmaster, is hoping to gain access to the site “immediately after the agreement is signed.”

Her first steps will include erecting signage and preparing for an opening “as soon as possible.”  

In November 2022, the post office in Belwood became inoperable due to a fire that destroyed the building. 

Belwood residents have been picking up their mail from a post office in Fergus since the incident.

The former township of West Garafraxa municipal office, 8460 Wellington Road 19, was chosen as the potential "temporary" post office in December 2022. 

In February, an application was filed by the Belwood postmaster to Canada Post to assess the adequacy of the West Garafraxa building, to be used as a post office.

Canada Post approved the West Garafraxa office site last month despite previous concerns that the new location is too far from Belwood. 

The proposed post office is 3.5 kilometres away from the hamlet, which is a three-minute drive or about a 45-minute walk. 

Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.