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After a less than auspicious debut last month, when almost no Park Extension residents turned out for the first meeting of the borough council at its new Ogilvy Avenue headquarters, there were definite signs last week at the second meeting that interest is indeed growing among Park Exers in their local borough government.
In all, five residents of Park Extension came up to stand before the microphone and question Mayor Anie Samson and city councillor Mary Deros, on issues ranging from the unclean state of a park on Champagneur Avenue, to a city-owned tree that is making a dangerous mess on private property, which brought a complaint from a man who also lives on Champagneur.
Garbage in Champagneur Park
"People are using this park as a dumping area," said Mary Mastrocola, who lives across the street from Champagneur Park. "There's garbage constantly 24/7 in front of the park. The city they put all nice bushes, yet the people take their garbage constantly 24/7 and dump it there. Today was garbage day. The garbage passed as is usual. Not even an hour after the garbage passed, garbage was put there.
"If you go there today, you go there any day of the week, 24/7 there's garbage. Also spring is coming … This park was designed for children of a very young age. It's a very nice park. However, from spring to late fall, the children are playing there, but they have to leave at a certain point because … older people from twenty (years) on take over the park. Police are constantly called. It's very noisy and I want something done about that park."
Not the only complaint – Deros
Councillor Mary Deros replied, "You are about the third or fourth citizen since Saturday from whom I've heard the same issue … I know that the police cruises by very slowly. I've been there as a witness, because when citizens call me I also go to see the situation. I've been told that the building just south of the park tend to take out a lot of garbage there and doesn't put it in front of their building. They put it in front of the park. That will be looked at. At the same time, we have Éco-quartier.
"We'll notify them and ask them to go door-to-door the entire block and let them know that the park is to be beautified and to be enjoyed by families and not to be used as a garbage dump. If they want to dump their garbage they can go to the Éco-centre, or we have two days of garbage pickup with certain hours." Deros said the borough has made "tremendous efforts" to make residents more aware of their responsibilities for properly disposing of garbage, and "if people don't respect this, there's not much that we can do. We can't have an inspector there 24 hours. However, the inspectors can see and if they find out who the culprit is, they'll find him."
A messy tree on Champagneur
Panos Karachalios, also a Champagneur Ave. resident, complained that a tree belonging to the city which discharges a great deal of sap has been causing him so many problems that, "we can not open the windows, we can not open doors, because everything comes on our pillows, on our mattresses, on our floors." Karachalios said he had to rebuild his home's front balcony twice. "The reason? It was the tree," he said, adding that he's complained about it to the borough council before.
His wife has slipped and injured herself as a result. Deros said, "The situation has been brought to my attention. I brought it into the services. They evaluated last year that it didn't need trimming, but it's also that there's a glue that falls from the tree to the balcony and to the walkway, which makes it slippery and sticky and that's how there have been accidents. But now we are aware of it."
Good news for a change
It wasn't all bad news for the borough council. "I just want to tell you that the new garbage arrangements are great," said Bloomfield Ave. resident Richard Winnell. "Finally somebody is happy," replied Mayor Anie Samson. All the same, Winnell was more interested in the possibility of a bus shelter at the corner of Crémazie and Champagneur.
"Persons residing on l'Acadie Boulevard in this area have no sheltered area for buses and while served by the number 85, 35 and 193 there is no shelter," he said. Shirley Laberge, a longtime Park Ex resident, also asked the borough council whether a community bulletin board at Athena Park could be "reactivated," because not everyone living in the district receives a community newspaper at home. Deros said she would look into it.