Weekly newsletter: October 31, 2023

Well, if yesterday’s snow wasn’t a reminder for me to swap my tires, I don’t know what is…

Hello and happy Halloween!

Please take extra care and patience driving around the community later today and watch for trick-or-treaters (possibly already on a sugar high).

Cresthaven/Baypointe

Works continue to be underway at Cresthaven/Baypointe to install a pedestrian crossover. This project was supposed to be completed a month ago, but there have been some challenges.

Originally approved mid-2022, the pedestrian crossover project features new sidewalk depressions and flashing beacons and gantry-mounted signage over Cresthaven Drive.

While I believe it will improve safety for pedestrians (especially schoolchildren) crossing Cresthaven. As designed, the improvements will be minor and don’t justify the expense and disruption caused by the project, especially the wiring that needed a section of sidewalk on Baypointe to be torn up.

Unfortunately, by the time I was made aware of the project, staff were practically in the pre-tender phase.

I had hoped to look ahead to future projects to ensure funds are used effectively to truly improve safety for everyone. However, the challenges have made this a little project challenging.

Thankfully, the City’s Project Manager has been very actively involved in the project (even more so after it became evident the contractor was going way past the deadline) and they have asked them to remedy several deficiencies that have been discovered.

As of today, most remediations ordered have been completed, including new concrete and proper soil levelling. Once the concrete cures, crews should be backfilling trenches and adding asphalt to refinish those areas of the road — depending on when that happens, it could be cold patches until it’s replaced with “real” asphalt in the spring.

Apologies to residents living in the area, those with children who have to navigate the site to get to/from school, and motorists who have been driving over the trenches every day.

Planned power outages

Over the next two weeks, Hydro Ottawa will be completing localised work on electrical infrastructure, some of which will require periodic power shutdowns to protect their crews.

Affected residents (not every house on the below-listed streets will be affected) will have received notifications from Hydro through their set method of communication/billing. A written notice may also be delivered to affected residents’ doors.

• Cresthaven Drive – October 31, 2023 (earlier today), 8:00 am to 2:00 pm

• Escade Drive – November 2, 2023, 8:00 am to 2:00 pm

• Ashland Street – November 7, 2023, 8:00 am to 2:00 pm

• Cottingham Street – November 9, 2023, 8:00 am to 2:00 pm

Though planned for 8:00 am to 2:00 pm, the outages may not necessarily span the entire timeframe, and some homes may experience multiple outages within that timeframe.

Residents will receive further notifications if the power outage is to extend beyond the original duration or if it needs to be rescheduled.

Daylight savings ends – smoke alarms and overnight transit

Daylight savings time ends at 2:00 am on Sunday, November 5. Please remember to set your clocks back an hour before going to bed Saturday night or overnight Sunday.

It’s also a great time to test your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and change batteries that need changing!

To account for the “extra” 1:00 am hour, all OC Transpo service will “repeat” their 1:00 am to 2:00 am schedules after the time change. For example, the N75 Barrhaven Centre will depart Tunney’s Pasture at 1:25 am before the time change and at 1:25 am after the time change.

The LRT will run until 2:00 am after the time change, essentially an extra hour of service.

Recreation registration

Swimming registration will begin Tuesday, November 14 at 9:00 pm, while all other activities will happen two days later on Thursday November 16 at 9:00 pm.

In-person registration for swimming begins Wednesday, November 15 and Friday, November 17 for all other activities.

Following the issues (understatement) that happened with autumn registration back in August, an investigation found ActiveNet had pushed a software update at the same time as when registration began in Ottawa.

The update negatively impacted the software responsible for balancing transaction loads across different servers during peak registration period.

While there’s some comfort knowing the issue was not specific to Ottawa, it still resulted in a frustrating evening for prospective registrants, including some who were just booted from the queue - I’ll keep a close eye on how things progress that first evening.

In the past, some residents were also charged a non-resident fee. As a short-term solution, residents are advised to use “Ottawa” as their city when entering the address to avoid being inadvertently charged the non-resident fee (long live Nepean). This shouldn’t be an issue for residents with existing accounts.

However, I think it’s fair that if we experience another major failure for winter registration, the City will need to seriously consider another vendor.

Please reach out at Wilson.Lo@ottawa.ca if you experience any major problems on registration night.

That’s all for this week. To the Mexican neighbours in our community who will be celebrating on 2 November, Feliz Día de los Muertos (Happy Day of the Dead)!