By Tracey Arial
www.thesuburban.com
Verdun’s mayor started the March borough meeting mentioning several celebrations, including March break, an Irish reception in Verdun, the St. Patrick’s Day parade, plus the birthdays of four out of seven elected officials.
Verdun borough hall remains lit in green to celebrate its Irish connections until the end of the month, when the electricity in all borough buildings will be shut off for an hour on March 28, as part of Earth Hour.
Manon Gauthier spoke about the multiple events taking place in Montreal over the next month to inform Montrealers about how women in the city got the right to vote.
Questions from citizens also concerned events to occur in the next few months. Mario Langlois asked that councillors asked the borough to invite Verdun residents to put May 23 in their agendas for the electro-mobility day 2015 at the Station on Nun’s Island. The day will include a half-day conference, lunch and free public trials of all sorts of electric vehicles, including cars, bikes and schoolbuses.
Marie-Helene Lamarche, a condo-owner from 225 Galt, was accompanied by her neighbours. They are concerned about excessive noise from Studio Lounge, a bar and dance club that opened several months ago.
“As you know, we changed the rules last December to welcome commercial businesses to offer new services to residents, not to cause these kinds of problems. In this particular situation, the permit they have is for a cafeteria and a dance school.
Things should already have improved.” Nun’s Island residents had many questions concerning the multiple transportation challenges and loss of borough land as a result of the new Champlain Bridge construction. Planners are working with incomplete information about which streets will become one-way streets, where buses will stop and other issues. Bus 12 to and from Nun’s Island will be redirected to the de l’Eglise metro station rather than the
LaSalle metro station, for instance. Charles Coté congratulated the borough of Verdun on their snow-clearing prowess this year, particularly when comparing the cleaning of secondary roads in Verdun with those in LaSalle. Mayor Parenteau said he would pass on the appreciation to the dedicated blue collar workers in charge of snow-clearing.
Belanger asked the borough to look into the fees and treatment of evicted tenants.
Residents also asked about dark sky protection and the replacement of insect-damaged trees.
Louise Constantin asked city councillors to try to get the city to remove P6. The question gave Parenteau a chance to poll his councillors on the subject and to ask local Police Chief Pierre Liboiron to elaborate on the speed police respond to calls, particularly concerning vandalism. Councillors were divided.
Several contracts were modified. The Sintra contract for repaving LaSalle Boulevard between 7000 LaSalle and Fayolle Street last summer was increased to a total cost of $1,191,329.40. The contract to pick up branches and other seasonal waste was extended for a year at a cost of almost $62,000.
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