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Post office building closer to completion

Aug 1, 2017 | 5:00 PM

The owners of the former Battleford post office building are putting a lot of love and hard work into much needed renovations to the building for Canada Post to open again this fall.

“Everything is so far on schedule,” Cassandra Germsheid said. She and her husband Jesse Crozier own the site.

They are currently working on the exterior of the building, and repairing the eavestroughs.

Next, they will paint the roof of the building, so the exterior work will be completed.

They have already finished using specialized dry-ice blasting equipment to clean the exterior brick work surface.

“It’s over 100 years old and we want it to last another 100 years,” Germsheid said. 

Canada Post plans to occupy the building in September to prepare for postal services this November.

Germsheid said she already notices a big difference after improving the building exterior, adding “it looks a lot brighter.”

Canada Post will use the main floor and the basement of the building when it returns.

Germsheid and Crozier say they haven’t decided what they will do with the second and third floors yet.

Germsheid mentioned she and her husband are still in the process of getting the clock in the tower running properly again. 

While the renovation progresses, the couple have created a website at: battlefordpostoffice.ca, so people can follow the project, and also learn more about the history of the old post office building, and the town itself at the same time.

“I wanted to have a place where people could keep up-to-date of what’s going on,” Germsheid said.

She and Crozier have completed much of the work on the project themselves including asbestos removal and new flooring. They have also hired experts, such as plumbers and electricians.

“At first I was thinking this is going to be a lot of work, but as we have gone through each process it really hasn’t been that bad,” Germsheid said. “A big part of that is because the building has been well maintained, so there weren’t a lot of bad surprises that we had to fix or repair. Everything has gone smoothly. We’re really happy with the progress.”

 

angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW