TSCC 1446 First Board Meeting

TSCC 1446 (Parkside) had its first Board of Directors meeting after the AGM on July 7, 2010. A typical order of business for the first Board meeting after every Annual General Meeting (AGM) is to elect from the members of the Board the President of the condo corporation, and to elect or appoint other officers (such as Secretary, Treasurer) and other representatives (e.g., Shared Facilities representatives).

The election is similar to election of directors. The five members of the Board (Andy Chang, David Grader, Thomas Kwong, Simon Li and Audrey Wai) cast votes for their candidate, and the candidate who has the most number of votes wins for that position.

The Process:

Simon Li nominated himself for the position of President. Thomas Kwong nominated David Grader for the position of President. After voting, Simon Li was duly elected as President.

David Grader nominated Thomas Kwong for the position of Treasurer, but Thomas Kwong declined his nomination. Simon Li nominated Andy Chang for the position of Treasurer. After voting, Andy Chang was duly elected as Treasurer.

David Grader nominated himself for the position of Secretary. After voting, David Grader was duly elected as Secretary.

Simon Li nominated Thomas Kwong for the position of 1st Vice-President. After voting, Thomas Kwong was elected as 1st Vice-President.

Simon Li nominated Audrey Wai for the position of 2nd Vice-President. After voting, Audrey Wai was elected as 2nd Vice-President.

Next is the election of representatives to the Shared Facilities Committee, which comprises of six people, two representatives from each of the three condo corporations of the Grandview Way residential complex.

Simon Li and David Grader nominated themselves as representatives to the Shared Facilities Committee. Audrey Wai nominated Andy Chang for this position. So, three candidates competing for two positions. After voting, Simon Li and Andy Chang were duly appointed as the Shared Facilities representatives on behalf of the Corporation.

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Frozen to Death, Almost

The 880 Grandview Way building finally changed over from cooling to heating on last Friday, October 23, 2009. (In 2008, the changeover date was October 24.)

Conservations were heard among some residents of the 880 building:

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Resident A:	Finally, the heating system of our building was turned on last Friday, October 23, 2009. I was almost frozen to death.
Resident B:	But it was turned on at about the same time last year. In fact, it was turned on last year on October 24, 2008.
Resident A:	I don’t remember what happened last year, but I only know that this year the Thanksgiving week (i.e. the week of October 12) was unusually cold with day time temperature in the single digit range, and night time temperature hovering above and below the freezing mark. I wish they could turn on the heat earlier.
Resident B:	But the week after that was kind of like “Indian summer” weather with day time temperature back to the high teens. If they had turned on the heat earlier, people would complain that it’s too hot.
Resident A:	If it’s too hot, I can just turn off the thermostat. At least I have a choice. Without heat, I have no choice but to endure frigid cold.
Resident B:	I think you are right. At least we have a choice.

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Resident C:	I think it’s against the law to turn on heat at such a late date. I check that there is a bylaw of the City of Toronto mandating that heat is to be turned on on September 15 of every year. [1]
Resident D:	I know about this bylaw, but I think this bylaw is for rental buildings only. So it is not applicable to our condo building, I think.
Resident C:	I don’t know about the legal coverage of this bylaw, but there are renters in this building, too. If they complain to the City of Toronto, or the Human Rights Commission, and end up with legal action against our condo corporation, we, the unit owners, will suffer financially.
Resident D:	You have a point there.
Resident C:	On the other hand, don’t you think that we, as unit owners, should deserve at least equal (if not better) treatment as renters?
Resident D:	I absolutely agree with you on this!

*   *   *   *   *   *

Resident E:	During the freezing Thanksgiving week, I made a complaint to the management office, asking why the changeover date was so late. The management office told me that the Board made the decision. Why did the Board make such a decision to have heat on at such a late date?
Resident F:	I happened to run into a member of the Board of Director and asked the same question. The Board member told me that they made the decision on the advice of the property manager, who knows the best because he deals with the day-to-day operations.
Resident E:	What does that mean?
Resident F:	I dunno.

*   *   *   *   *   *

The above conservations will not be heard among the residents of the 88 building or the casitas because each of their unit has in-unit control of their heating and cooling system.

Note:
[1] Read the Toronto Municipal Code about heating here at http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/municode/1184_497.pdf.

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Organic Waste Recycling

The City of Toronto has instituted the Green Bin Program to collect organic waste and turns it into compost. The obvious goal of this program is to reduce the amount of garbage that goes into landfill sites.

Organic waste includes food leftovers, egg shells, coffee grounds/filters, tea bags, house plants including soil, pet’s waste, soiled paper towels and tissues, diapers and sanitary products, and certain paper food packaging. To people like us living in high-rise buildings, this could be somewhat challenging to implement. There are two approaches to deal with this.

The first approach is to have big green bins put at where currently the garbage is being picked up. Each unit will be given a small bucket to put their organic waste in. Once a day or once every 2 or 3 days, depending on the type and amount of organic waste collected, you will have to carry the bucket to the outside of the building to dump it in the green bins.

"That’s very inconvenient!" We hear you. So we have the second approach.

The second approach is to retrofit a bi-sorter into the current garbage chute. This is how it works: There are two buttons on each chute opening on each floor. You press one button for regular garbage, and press the other button for organic waste. Well, if you by mistake dump garbage into the organic waste chute, the entire organic waste will become contaminated and the City may treat it as regular garbage.

Sounds wonderful! What’s the catch? Obviously, it’s the $$$money$$$. The bi-sorter will cost us more than $40,000 to install, plus annual maintenance costs thereafter. Each unit in the 880 Grandview Way building, on the average, will have to shoulder a cost of close to $300.

So, the first approach appears to be the one that should be tried out first because the cost is minimal. If the first approach turns out to present major problems, then the second approach may then be the option.

So, when you take your bucket full of organic waste from your unit to the outside, please make sure the bucket won't drip; otherwise, carpet cleaning costs will soar drastically.

Update: The City of Toronto has provided, free of charge, small blue boxes for recycling. This small blue box can fit under the kitchen sink. You can pick up your blue box now at the Management Office (Tel: 416-229-4274).

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Traffic Control at Gatehouse

The evenings of Fridays and Saturdays are the times that most visitors are coming to visit their friends and relatives in the Grandview Way residential complex. You probably have seen something like this: visitor vehicles form a long line in front of the gatehouse, blocking traffic on the right lane for residents.

In order to expedite the traffic flow at the entrance, delayed visitors calling was implemented in July this year. (Click here to read about visitor delayed calling.)

In order to further avoid traffic hold-ups at the gatehouse entrance, especially when it comes the time Doris becomes a thoroughfare to Finch, pylons (orange traffic cones) have been put at the entrance to divide it into two lanes: the left lane (the lane closer to the gatehouse) is for visitors, the right lane for residents.

New traffic control measures at the gatehouse.
(Click here to see a larger picture.)

Please inform your visitors of the new procedure. Also inform them that if the visitor’s lane is already queued up with cars, wait at the curbside of Doris (if you are coming from the south) or at the center buffer lane (if you are coming from the north), but please do not block the entrance of the resident’s lane.

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Gate Arm Repair

Saturday morning, September 26, 2009. It was a bit cool outside. It is perfect to sleep in. Especially when most people don’t have to go to work.

Shortly after 8:00am, residents whose units face the gatehouse were awakened by a loud construction noise, even much louder if the units are on lower floors.

What was that noise? It was two construction workers using an electric saw to cut the floor tiles at the exit gate-arms to repair the malfunctioning exit loop that was buried underneath. The work was finished by about 10:00am. The work cost about $1,500 to the Grandview Way complex.

Two workers fixing exit gate arm
(Click here to see a larger picture.)

It has been noticed that the exit gate arm does not come down intermittently after vehicles have exited. So, the management office is initiating the repair work.

Some residents felt that, even though it is not against any law to start construction work after 8 on a Saturday morning, they would have appreciated it very much if someone could cut some slack and have the work started after 9:00am.

Some residents mentioned that they did not notice the problem with the exit gate-arm, but instead they had noticed that the entrance gate-arm on the resident side (not the visitor side) often do not come back down after a vehicle has entered past the entrance gate-arm. They wondered why the entrance gate-arm is not fixed first because vehicles can just go through when the gate-arm on the resident side stays up. This could pose a security issue.

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Kitchen Stack Cleaning

It’s a common practice for some people to pour kitchen liquid waste into the sink. When oil, grease, food crumbs and other things go down the kitchen pipe (or the kitchen stack), some of it stick onto the inner wall of the stack and do not go all the way down and out to the city sewage. Over time, this narrows the inside space of the stack pipe. Eventually, when the stack pipe get clogged up so much that it “vomits” the scum in its “stomach” (the black stuff in the picture) out to the kitchen sink.

Scums backs up and flows out to the kitchen sink.
(Click here to see a larger picture.)

High-rise condos have to schedule cleaning the kitchen stacks regularly. In the 880 Grandview Way building, kitchen clean-out openings (the access point) are located in each unit on the 2nd, 7th and 13th floors.

This year the kitchen stack cleaning in the 880 Grandview Way building will begin from September 14 to 22, and will be done by Firenza Plumbing. The cleaning costs about $6,000 (including taxes).

The more grease and food crumbs go down to the drain, the faster the scum will build up, and the more frequently this clean-out will have to be done (currently it’s done about once a year in the 880 Grandview Way building), and obviously the more costly your management fees will become.

You may help slow down (or perhaps even eliminate) the buildup of scum in kitchen stacks by avoiding dump liquid food waste (especially with oil and food crumbs) down the kitchen sinks. You may put the kitchen waste in a plastic bag (make sure it does not leak) – or even double-bag it – tie it tight and firm, and then put it down the garbage chute. This in the end will save you money.

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Main entrance doors

Of the two doors at the front of the 880 Grandview Way building, the pivot and closure of the south-side door (the door to your left when you are looking at the doors from outside the building) was damaged.

South-side entrance door cannot closed properly
Click here for larger picture

Possible causes include the strong northerly winds in the winter and blow slam open the south-side door, as well as careless use by residents and visitors.

One can use slide bolts to make it stationary but can be opened to make way for large items going through. This will cost about $350 (including taxes). Another way is to repair the close mechanism; this will cost under $1,200 (including taxes).

However, this is being put on hold temporarily because the Board is actively considering installing automatic door openers on the main lobby entrances (as well as at the P1 and P2 entrances). When and if it is decided to install the automatic door openers, it may not even be necessary to repair the south-side door.

Meanwhile, residents should use the door with care, as always should. Careless use and misuse will result in unexpected repair costs that end up becoming part of your monthly management fees. Please pass the message to your children and visitors.

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Guess Gas

Our current gas contract with Provident Energy Management will expire by the end of October this year. The three Boards of the three Corporations (the Casitas, the 88 Grandview Way building, the 880 Grandview Way building) have been investigating into new and better commitments.

The Management Office invited two suppliers for a presentation on Wednesday, July 29, 2009 in the party room of the 88 building. The first one to present was Mark Burtniak from Superior Energy. The second one was Ata Malick from Comsatec Inc.

Shorter-term contracts (e.g., 1-year or 2-year contracts) have lower rates and longer-term contracts (e.g., 3-year or 5-year contracts) have higher rates. One-year contract will save us money if gas price does not increase significantly next year, because it will allow us to continue to commit to lower prices next year.

However, if gas price increases significantly next year and in future years, then lock-in multi-year contracts now are better even though they have higher rates than one-year contracts.

During the presentation, prices for future natural gas starting November 1, 2009 were quoted as follows:

• For 1-year contract: 20.8 cents per cubic metre
• For 3-year contract: 24.3 cents per cubic metre
• For 5-year contract: 25.9 cents per cubic metre

(Note: natural gas prices, like stock prices, fluctuate every minute, if not more frequent. You may check energy prices on www.ino.com.)

To go long, or to go short? That’s the question.

The price for 5-year contract is about 25% higher than the 1-year contract price. That means if we go for 1-year contract, we already have (in a way) 25% immediate savings, but we risk of paying higher prices if natural gas price increases in later years. We don’t know unless we have a crystal ball, but unfortunately that’s something that we don’t have.

So we turn to the experts. Mark Burtniak of Superior Energy recommended to go long term (5 years), but Ata Malick of Comsatec Inc. recommended to go short term (1 year). Well, looks like they don’t have the crystal ball either.

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Exercise room door damage

About three weeks ago, the door to the exercise room of the 880 building was broken in the hinge area on the door spine. Due to the composition of the door, the door cannot be repaired but had to be taken down. As the door is not of standard size, a new door would have to be ordered. It would take about another four weeks (mid-September 2009) for the new door to arrive and be installed. The cost is about $1,200 including taxes.

Exercise room without door.
(Click here to see a larger picture.)

After lengthy discussions and careful considerations, the Board of Directors of the 880 Grandview Way building has made the following decisions.

1. The exercise room will still remain open while waiting for the new door so that residents can still enjoy using the exercise room. Please be reminded that, as it has always been an ongoing rule for using the exercise room, children under the age of 16 are not allowed in the exercise room. Notices have been posted in the exercise room.



Notices have been posted in the exercise room.
(Click here to see a larger picture.)


2. Security camera has been installed in the exercise room to monitor the area as of writing. The cost is about $1,500 including taxes, with a 5-year warranty, supplied by AFY Electronics Ltd.

In the past, there had been some incidents in the exercise room (such as some dumb-bells were “lost”). With the new camera installed, the general security and safety of the exercise room should improve.

The exercise room is a public area. As for security and safety reasons, security cameras have been already installed elsewhere in the 880 Grandview Way building, e.g., in the hallway on the upper lobby level, and in each of the three elevators, as well as in the swimming pool. Privacy should not be an issue here.

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Visitor delayed calling

The current procedure dealing with visitors in cars are like this:

When visitors in cars come to visit residents of Grandview Way, they have to stop at the gatehouse, tell the security guard which building and unit number they are visiting. The security guard then has to call the unit to get confirmation that they are expecting the visitors. Once confirmed, the gate-arm is open to let the car pass through to visitor parking.

Sometimes no-one in the unit answers the phone. This could happen for a number of reasons. Perhaps the visitors show up a bit early, and the resident is running some errands nearby but not at home. It could also be that the resident is not expecting visitors but the visitors just show up. The visitors may ask the security guard to try some other phone number (such as a cell phone number). This delays the processing, and if more visitor cars arrive, the cars could queue up and spill onto Doris Avenue, and you probably have seen such a situation.

As you may know, Doris Avenue is currently being extended from Byng Avenue to Finch Avenue as a bypass route for Yonge Street traffic. The construction is scheduled to complete before the end of this year. Then the traffic will be expected to be heavier than now. If visitor cars queue up and spill onto Doris Avenue, traffic would be messy and even dangerous.

The Shared Facilities Committee has decided to implement a new “delayed calling” procedure on a trial basis:

During rush hours (4pm to 7pm, Mondays to Fridays, holidays excepted), visitors cars after giving the building and unit number they are visiting, will be let through to the visitor parking so as not to clog up the entrance. As soon as when it is less busy, the security guard will then call the unit to confirm that their visitors are legits.

This new “delayed calling” procedure has already been in effect since July on a trial basis until September this year when it will be reviewed. A notice is supposed to have been put up to inform residents the change of new procedure.

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What is Grandview Way?

Welcome to Grandview Way!

But, what is Grandview Way?

Grandview Way is a residential complex located in North York, south of Finch and east of Yonge. Since the amalgamation, North York has become part of the City of Toronto.

This entire residential complex was built by the developer Tridel under the project name "Northtown". It consists of three condominium projects:

• The casitas (or more commonly known as the townhouses), the condominium townhouses completed in 1995 under the project name “Northtown Casitas 1”. Legally it is known as Metropolitan Toronto Condominium Corporation Number 1113 (MTCC 1113).

• The 88 Grandview Way building – the condominium building completed in 1996 under the project name “Grandview Tower”. Legally it is known as Metropolitan Toronto Condominium Corporation Number 1132 (MTCC 1132).

• The 880 Grandview Way building – the condominium building completed in 2002, under the project name “Parkside”. Legally it is known as Toronto Standard Condominium Corporation Number 1446 (TSCC 1446).

If you want to know the difference between MTCC and TSCC, read the article “Condominium Corporation.”

With the addition of the newest and latest building (the 880 building), the Grandview Way residential complex is now complete. This entire complex was managed by DEL Property Management Inc., an affiliation, (if not a subsidiary) of Tridel, the builder of the Grandview Way residential complex.

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INDEX

• At the Grandview Tower (MTCC 1132) AGM
• At the Parkside (TSCC 1446) AGM
• At the Casitas (MTCC 1113) AGM
• MTCC 1132 (Grandview Tower) AGM
• TSCC 1446 (Parkside) AGM
• MTCC 1113 (Casitas) AGM
• New Garage Door
• Frozen to Death, Almost
• Organic Waste Recycling
• Traffic Control at Gatehouse
• Gate Arm Repair
• Names and Numbers
• Kitchen Stack Cleaning
• Main Entrance Doors
• Guess Gas
• Exercise room door damage
• Visitor delayed calling
• What is Grandview Way?

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Read more about living in a condo at ILiveInACondo.blogspot.com

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