Nightly disturbances draw resident's ire

Chris Lee, who raised the issue during council's monthly meeting last Monday evening, said the situation has improved since he met privately with Mayor Karin Marks recently to discuss the matter.

"The only thing is that it seems that recently there have been new personnel who came into the station," he said. However, Lee said some personnel have been holding long conversations outside past midnight, disturbing him and others in their apartment block.

"It happens only sporadically, which is not too bad, but most of the problem is really with the fire station. They're really happy to see each other at a quarter to seven in the morning every morning."

"And you're not nearly as happy to hear it," interjected Marks.

"Definitely not," Lee answered.

According to Lee, many residents in his building have decided to rearrange their apartments and locate their bedroom away from the street in order to escape the source of the noise.

"My bedroom faces the front and there are many people who have actually moved their bedrooms to the back because of this problem," he said. "Apparently they had a petition before and that didn't work."

Lee said he recently spoke with the City's director-general, Bruce St. Louis, to discuss the problem. "It seems that when the fire chief is not there, then the people tend to go at 12:30 in the morning to have a wonderful time. Now I'm glad that they like each other so much … It has improved recently, but again it takes place sporadically. It could be two times a week."

Marks said the City would look into the complaint, despite the fact it has no immediate authority over activities taking place at the fire hall, which is a centre city responsibility, or at the police station, which is as well.

"We have a reasonable relationship with them and I'm sure Mr. St. Louis will try to get the point across that this is important," she said. "But the dynamic is slightly different when it isn't our own department. So we'll continue trying and make the point … It's an absolutely reasonable request … We'll keep trying."

During the same meeting, Frank Moller, another Stanton Street resident, complained that a stone retaining wall on Stanton is falling apart. "The ground is falling down, rocks are falling down," he said.

"To me they look like they're very precarious … They're sticking out this far with no support underneath them. I've been involved with safety most of my life so I look at these things … If that starts to move, that whole building could come down."

Marks and St. Louis promised to investigate.