Hundreds of additional residents of Hanover will soon be picking up their mail from community mailboxes.

Bernie Stahn is Local Area Manager for Canada Post in southern Manitoba. He says they are expanding their community mailbox delivery west of what is now the Mitchell delivery area. This will extend west to the edge of the Rural Municipality of Hanover boundary. The northern boundary will be Highway 52 and extend south to Road 31N.

Stahn says this will involve about 150 residents in the Mitchell area and between 400 and 450 in Kleefeld.

"In Kleefeld itself, we are only putting mailboxes in the growth areas," notes Stahn.

That includes the area south of Friesen Avenue, the area of Deerpath and Fox Run and then the Schinkel developments. Stahn says all other customers will continue to pick up their mail at the post office in Kleefeld.

"Kleefeld right now has no community mailboxes," explains Stahn. "The present post office is beyond capacity, so we're trying to relieve some pressure off of them."

Between 20 and 22 additional sites will be established with this announcement. Stahn says it is not only the Kleefeld post office but impacted customers could also currently be picking up their mail in Steinbach, Mitchell or Randolph.

The community mailboxes will have parcel compartments. That means for customers receiving a parcel where a signature is not required, that package will be left at the box and a key put in the customer's box. Parcels requiring a signature would be left at the Kleefeld post office or Mitchell Coop.

All those impacted by this change have been sent a letter. Another letter will be sent around May 19th with information on where they register and pick up their keys. Implementation is scheduled for June 19th.