Resident wants retaining wall fixed
[attach]4219[/attach]For Rosemarie Mohring, history is repeating itself.
The Leaside resident is watching a retaining wall at the side of her property crumble for the second time in about 10 years.
Mohring says ever since the Shoeless Joe’s restaurant opened last summer at Eglinton Avenue East and Laird Drive, several trucks are using the narrow laneway that divides her Laird Drive yard from the small plaza to make daily deliveries to the restaurant.
“Since Shoeless Joe’s opened, huge trucks, beer trucks, all kind of trucks — they have to back in,” Mohring said. “And they end up hitting the wall and so it’s all crumbled.”
In the late 1990s, it only took her contacting then-councillor Jane Pitfield to get the original retaining wall — one made of railway ties and put up sometime in the 1940s — to be rebuilt after years of wear and tear left it in a state of disrepair.
But this time around, even the wall’s material is a problem. Mohring says the wall’s stone is rather soft, and crumbles easily under the weight of the trucks.
However, there is a potential solution that could literally be as simple as looking across the street. Mohring says her neighbour also has a retaining wall — a silver guardrail often used along the sides of major roads and in parking lots.
“That would even be better,” Mohring said. While a guard rail won’t solve the problem for the trucks that have to maneuver through the laneway, Mohring has an idea that could keep both sides happy.
“They should make it a one-way, so (the trucks) come in at the other end, which is Sutherland (Drive) and they exit on to Laird,” Mohring suggests. “It would be better instead of coming up Laird and trying to get in this end.”
Mohring says she has taken the matter up with councillor John Parker.
He said on April 21 that he is well aware of the issue, and while he didn’t know if Mohring’s single-direction traffic idea is doable, he said it’s worth a try.
“I’m in no position to comment on that, but it’s an idea and certainly I’m all for ideas,” Parker said. “Whether that’s the solution or not, or whether it’s workable or not, I’m happy to put that thought forward and see where it goes.”
He did say that his office has a file on the retaining wall, and was being managed by a member of his staff, though he says the issue itself hasn’t been brought to his attention since sometime last fall. However, he does remember there being a slight hiccup. Parker said there was a question as to who is actually responsible for the wall — Mohring or the city.
Parker said he would be taking another look at the issue after the Easter weekend. For Mohring’s part, she’s running out of options, and just wants a solution.
“It is very disheartening,” she said. “I lost the hedge and had to have a wooden fence put up, which goes from the front of my house to the back. That cost me quite a bit of money.”
