  | On Monday December 10th Ward 1 residents called me to express concern about the many raised manhole covers and catch basins on their streets. As the saying goes, the squeaky wheel gets the oil. The same day I contacted the City's engineering and development services departments to get action on Jack Glenn St., Groveland Ave, Williiam Lee Ave. Clearbrook and Greenhill Ave. I put in writing the difficulty Oshawa citizens were having navigating around these obstructions in winter weather, as well as the impediment they pose for emergency vehicles and the City snowplows attempting to clear the roads. City staff explained that "the structures were raised to prepare for surface paving, but due to the cold weather this may not be possible this year." They confirmed they were aware of the problem and indicated that staff were working with the developer and consultant to have the obstructions lowered due to winter control. It seems the developer had been holding off as long as possible to have this subdivision paved this year, but as they wrote back, the consultant was finally instructing their contractor to lower them. I wrote once more to make sure the work would start and be completed soon, and was told it would start Friday Dec 14th and be completed by Friday Dec 21st. Happy to report this is how it went. The work was successfully completed. These local roads are now without the pylons. and the catch basins and manhole covers have all been lowered. Also I've followed up with conversations with staff to find ways to ensure this sort of problem does not happen again in other Oshawa new development areas in the future.   |