No GO Train Service Nov.30 and Dec.1

Christmas in Clarkson Village

Last two yard waste pickups for 2013

There are only two  yard waste pickups left this year and they will happen these next two weeks.

• Tuesday, November 19 and
• Tuesday, November 26

These will be the final pickups for the winter season, starting up again in Spring 2014. Take advantage of these days to clear your yard and deck of all the fallen leaves and trimmed branches. Watch here for April startup dates.

Make sure to use open containers or paper yard waste bags if you want your yard waste to be collected.

Tag Exemption this week and next

Garbage/waste pickup is one day later this week because of the Victoria Day holiday on Monday. It is also the annual 2-week Garbage Tag Exemption period that follows Victoria Day in Missisauga and Peel. Therefore, this Wednesday, May 22, you can put out unlimited bags of garbage. See the Region of Peel Waste Management Guide 2013/2014 for details. If you have misplaced the copy of the Guide that was delivered to your door, you can find it all online at www.peelregion.ca/waste.

Pickup reverts to Tuesday next week for this area.

Our next exemption days will be after Labour Day in September.

Happy Easter!

Invalid Phone Cards from Local Convenience Store

A resident reported that a phone card purchased from the local convenience store on Johnsons Lane was already expired prior to the purchase. Although this seems hard to believe, it is true.
         When the resident attempted to return the card to the convenience store for a refund, the proprietor refused to refund the price or replace the card. This, even though it was done on the same day as the purchase, within half an hour of purchase! He did not offer any explanation for the problem, not did he make any effort to rectify it. The resident telephoned the card provider, Maximum, to file a complaint and to see if they could do anything to solve the problem. The company was able to determine that the particular card had expired in 2005 -- that is seven (7) years ago!!! To help the resident, Maximum agreed to provide a new PIN so that the card could be used. They may not have been required to do so, but it does show good customer relations.They also are following up with the store to determine why this happened.
          Meanwhile ... Advice from Maximum to all residents of Birch Glen, and any other person who shops at the Johnsons Lane convenience store is:

• DO NOT purchase any pre-paid phone cards from this convenience store;
• Be aware that stores of this sort often buy product from other stores that are going out of business, and that some of this product may already be expired or past its "best buy" date;
• Also realize that smaller stores may not have a return policy -- buyer beware.

Has anyone else had this same concern with phone cards purchased from the convenience store? Have there been problems with other expired products? Please let us know by commenting on this post. Let us and other residents know.

Street grinding to start

The City will start grinding the old pavement/asphalt early next week, either on Monday, Sept. 17 or Tuesday,Sept. 18. This is the removal of the top surface in preparation for re-paving.

Please make sure to move your cars off the roads by 7 a.m., otherwise they will be towed awy.

New curbs for Birch Glen

The first stage of work on new curbs for the neighbourhood has begun with trenches dug along the south side of Andros Blvd. and on Zante Cres.  Markings and cuts have been done on one side of each of the other streets in the neighbourhood, which means that the old curbs will soon be removed and new curbs installed. Work is being done first on one side of each street; when that side is completed, work will begin on the other side.

We have been informed that the work will progress in stages:

• curbs will be replaced first
• boulevard sections of driveways will be done next
• repaving of streets will be done last

Information on driveway reconstruction will follow in a separate posting.

Yard Waste Pick-up Schedule for Summer 2012

• July 17 & 31
• August 14 & 28
• September 11 & 25

Fence By-law

On a walk through the neighbourhood, it has been noted that there a few front yard fences that are both too tall and are built of "closed or solid type construction", both features which do not comply with the existing City of Mississauga Fence By-law 349-83. We are not going to point fingers, but you will know who you are (or if it is your neighbour) simply by looking at the construction of the fence in your front yard.

To help out, we have added a PDF reference to the Fence By-law on the Resources page of the neighbourhood website (http://www.birchglen.com/). The By-law is too long and comprehensive to quote verbatim in this post, so we have tried to put the relevant section in plain English.

The section regarding front yard fences is Section 6 on page 4 of the by-law. It states, plainly that:

• A front yard fence of solid type construction cannot be taller than 1 metre (39 inches) above effective ground level;
• A front yard fence of open type construction can be up to 1.5 metres (59 inches) above effective ground level
• The fence cannot be closer than 4.5 metres (14 feet 9 inches) to the nearest streetline;
• If a rear-yard or side-yard fence is within 4.5 metres of a driveway on a adjoining lot, it must be of open-type construction to provide adequate sightlines for any vehicles existing said driveway, for the safety of passing pedestrians.

The By-law states that a "fence of open construction" means a fence constructed so that at least one third of its vertical surface area is open space, enabling motorists and pedestrians to have a clear view through such fence. (By-law 349-83).
        "Effective ground level" is defined as the mean level of the ground within a radius of 1.25 metres (49 inches) of the ground location being considered -- where the fence is located. This definition may affect the owners of those properties that have a retaining wall that raises the level of their front yard above the adjacent sidewalk. The Building Department might be able to offer some clarification as to how you decide the effective ground level of your property.
        A fence is defined as "a railing, wall, hedge, line of posts, shrubs, trees, wire, gate, boards, pickets, or other similar substances, used to enclose or divide in whole or in part a yard or other land, to establish a property boundary, or to provide privacy".

Please go to the Resources page of our website and click on the Fence By-law, or go to the City of Mississauga website and search the by-law.