436 Wellington Street West

Please be advised that the corporation will be conducting the annual fire alarm test on

TUESDAY, AUGUST 1^st, 2006

between the hours of

9:00 AM TO 5:00 PM

Access to all units will be required in order to make certain that the part of the fire alarm system that is in those suites operates as designed.

Please ensure that all internal alarm systems are put on standby or provide management with a disarm code.

At the start, the alarm will sound continuously in order to inspect the common element areas. After this test, the alarms will sound intermittently.

In the event of a fire emergency, after the fire test has been completed, the alarm will sound continuously for over three (3) minutes and should be obeyed.

We regret any inconvenience caused by this testing but trust you will understand the importance of performing this work.

The Board and Management

The dead elm tree in the northwest corner will be removed on Sunday July 30th.
The tree removers have notified us that vehicles in the following parking spots must be moved by 9am on that day:

Parking spots #18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24

and any bicycles and motorcycles parked in the corner lot.

Some suggested alternate parking includes on Wellington Street and the parking lot across the street.

We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your cooperation.

kp

The chiller is working and in many instances is bigger than the building needs in size. You may recall that we have had problems with the chiller shutting down because of low demand, not high demand. We also have to consider that the units have large areas of glass and most owners have little to no window coverings to prevent heat penetration through the glass. We are also now going through a heat wave and that adds to the stress of the system and its overall effectiveness because the chilled water comes from the basement to the top floor before it returns to the chiller. With everyone on the system using it to its maximum means that higher floors will have warmer chilled water than lower floors providing less effective air conditioning.

We also had a recent power failure, causing individual insuite directional flow valves to close and the solenoid has not re-opend some of them. This prevents chilled water from entering the coils of the individual fan coil units in the suites. In addition, the main chiller does not automatically turn back on after a power failure and we require the attendance of a technician to restart the chiller. This was a built in safety on the system but has become a bit of a nuisance. Since I don't live there, I need someone to tell me that a power failure occured for long enough to affect the chiller so that I can call a Technician in to restart it.

I have had many calls about the air conditioning and have been successful in getting owners/resident to reset their insuite valves by getting them to turn off their suite power for about 5 to 10 seconds and then turn it back on. This seems to be the solution to the problem for many of the residents. Servicing and repair and maintenance of the insuite fan coil units are the responsibility of the unit owner. Many have had little to no maintenance done on them since installation and many people don't even change their filters regularly. Much of this contributes to lower effective individual air conditioning. I would be happy to take direction from anyone on anything else we can do to assist in getting better AC. I have to date asked if there is anyway that we can install an automatic restart of the chiller after a power failure and am waiting for a written response, hopefully with a positive suggestion.

Bert

Bert Berger, Property Manager
Vellum Group
416-635-7721

Quite apart from any past or ongoing “discussions” with club owners, this facility helps to create a credible, centralized database for the area.
This also makes for an easy way to keep a “noise log” which the AGCO would want to see if there was a complaint.

Report club problems to the police at 416-808-2222. Obtain the police log number. Go to the KSRA website www.king-spadina.com and record the info on the form.

I did test it by sending in 2 recent complaints I had: Touch Lounge on Friday 23 June and C Lounge on Monday, 10 July. Both were accepted and an automated confirmation was sent back for each.

The better records we have, the better chance we have of combating the big nuisance element of the club operations.

Henry

The KSRA Noise Incident Report Form is now linked in our sidebar.
-kp

Our main chiller unit was serviced earlier today (Tuesday July 18th) but it is still failing to provide adequate air conditioning to our units. A service person is scheduled to service it again first thing tomorrow morning (Wednesday July 19th).

kp

You may have noticed new lighting fixtures flanking the doors to our garbage room. The intention is to provide better security and lighting of our vehicles without having excessive light directed into our suites.
kp

This has been an ongoing problem for which we’ve been unable to find a workable solution. The board will be meeting with Nick Di Donato (owner of Liberty Entertainment) and Ian (C-Lounge manager) to discuss some options. Our main concerns are:

-excessive noise and in particular, noise after 11pm*
-parking and crowd gatherings on our property and lawn
-trespassing by patrons into our parking lot
-blockage of our driveway by taxis and patrons

*The noise by-law is here: (relevant to us is section 591-4, pages 4-6) http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/bylaws/2003/law0111.pdf

What we hope to achieve in this meeting is to have noise reduced to reasonable levels that are acceptable to us without compromising Nick’s business. We also hope to have his door security instructed and trained to manage crowd gatherings away from our front lawn, keep our driveway clear, and stop patrons from wandering into our parking lot. We'd like his indoor and patio staff to control overly loud voices, singing, chanting etc.

In the meantime, the board will also explore a “last resort” option of submitting a formal complaint to the AGCO to revoke C-Lounge’s license to sell alcohol based upon the repeated failure to comply with the conditions of the license.

http://www.agco.on.ca/en/h.home.html

kp

The large elm tree in our northwest corner has been long-dead from suspected Dutch-elm disease. The board has arranged for its removal, and the city has granted permission to do so. The date of removal - to be announced. Some of the vehicles parked adjacent to the corner structure will have to be moved on that day.

kp

If your window doesn’t close properly, or requires unreasonable force to close, you’re not alone. Several unit owners have complained about this.

Due to the weight of the open window, the hinge mechanism becomes misaligned after leaving the window open for long periods.

Arrangements will be made to have all of these malfunctioning windows serviced soon. To prevent future problems, we advise residents to not open their windows beyond an angle of about 30 degrees.

Please leave your first name and unit number (in the comment section below) if you have a malfunctioning window in your suite. Or email directly to Karin at: karin.dumitru@gmail.com

kp

Dear friends and neighbours,

Thank you for having me as your new president -- I'll do my best. Thanks to Henry, the outgoing president, who helped bring me up to speed and is thankfully sticking around.

Although the mandate of the Board of Directors is to run the affairs of the corporation (and not specifically to communicate with unit owners), one of the goals of this new board is to improve transparency between it and the unit owners. It behooves us to keep you informed about the issues affecting your homes and investments. Many condo corporations find newletters to be the simplest and most effective way to keep people abreast of what's going on, and the blog format allows unit owners and residents to comment or ask questions.

So here it is... I hope you find it helpful. Be sure to read the “Previous Posts” and “Archives” to catch up on older news.

To make comments click on the "comments" icon below each post and sign-in with either your unit number or with your first name and last initial.

You can also email any of the board of directors directly:

Karin:
karin.dumitru@gmail.com

Henry:
dauchapt@rogers.com

Kyle:
kylepae@sympatico.ca

Or, Bert (Vellum Group):
vellumgroup@yahoo.ca
416-635-7721

Sincerely,

Kyle Pae
416-599-7252