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From the S.L. Signal, July 23, 1980. Volume 3, Number 12. Postmaster George Dubetz Recieves Plaque after 25 Years of Service by Armin Hecht Can you imagine the Smoky Lake post office without George Dubez? He is the psot office. He has worked for the federal public service for 27 years, most of the time as post master in Smoky Lake. Recently he received a 25 year public recognition of his work as a public servant of Canada. Mr. Dubetz is 57. The plaque was given to him by his supervisor, Pat Gratton of St. Paul. Mr. Dubetz started his career with the federal government as a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1942. He was discharged four years later. Then he went to farming for 10 years just south of town. but he had to change careers due to ill-health. For a couple of years he worked as an accountant in Edmonton. When the postal service looked for a post-master in Smoky Lake he applied and got the job. In those days the post office was in the little building next to Macleods, and the mail went to Edmonton by train. Mr. Dubetz remembers local buinessmen mailing letters in the morning and receiving an answer that night. It was on the evening train coming back from the city. This wasn't the rule, but it happened often enough to cause people to reflect on the good old days of postal service. Nowadays mail goes from Edmonton by truck in the evening. Smoky Lake bound mail is brought in by truck in the wee hours of the morning. Mr. Dubetz and his associates - he has a full-time assistant and a part-time helper - start sorting it out at 7:30 a.m. Mr. Dubetz doesn't like to dwell on today's postal service. Suffice to say with the marvels of automation it takes at times five to six days for return mail from the city. Mr. Dubetz and his colleagues don't belong to any of the multitude of postal unions. They are members of an independent post-masters' association. At one time Mr. Dubetz had more than a dozen small rural post offices under his jurisdiction. These offices are all closed now. But the number of lock boxes in his post office has more than doubled in recent years and there is a waiting list now. The post office may well have to be expanded in the not too distant future, especially if there is industrial growth in the Smoky Lake region. What does he like bets about his job as post master? "I like being my own boss and I like meeting the public." As to any complaints about slow mail service he says: "what can I do?" Once the mail leaves Smoky Lake, it is out of his hands. Return
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