Special Notification
Birkdale Drive should be paved during the 2011 construction season. The proposed work will result in adjustments to driveways and some lawn slopes, but it is anticipated that the majority of the work will be limited to HRM's right-of-way. Any fences, hedges, shrubs and/or gardens that are currently located within the street right-of-way may have to be removed and relocated to within the private property boundaries prior to construction by the property owner. If not relocated prior to construction, HRM will remove and dispose of any features which are in conflict with the proposed work. Trees within the street right-of-way will be addressed by HRM, and must not be removed by the property owner. A notice will be sent to all property owners prior to commencement of the project. If you have any questions concerning this project please call 490-6872.
Bus Shelter Vandalism
Since I have had several bus shelters vandalized in my district, I thought I would post the response from Metro Transit staff on bus shelter vandalism.
There has been a rash of shelter vandalism lately. It traditionally does seem to occur in summer when the weather becomes warmer and more people are out and about late at night. This type of vandalism is very difficult to catch people in the act of, as it is so random and normally carried out when nobody else is around.
Metro Transit/HRM currently has a contract with CBS Outdoor Advertising for the right to situate their own shelters with advertising panels at our stops in return for the responsibility of all bus shelter maintenance and repair. Therefore, there is no direct cost to tax payers, although repeated damage could lead to the shelter being permanently removed from a location, resulting in an inconvenience to passengers.
Each broken glass panel costs approximately $350.00 to replace. Since April 2010 there have been 106 bus shelters vandalized, for a total of $37,100. We have tested using other types of bus shelters over the years, including concrete and fibreglass, however, these were proven to be undesirable in that they were dark at night, Operators could not easily see into them and they posed other comfort, safety and hygiene issues. Tempered glass has proven to be the most ideal,, as long as someone doesn't deliberately set out to break it.
Metro Transit has worked with our contractor, CBS Outdoor, to post anti-vandal messages in the shelters in the past...posters which read " Graffiti and Vandalism ..not in our streets...only you can help" and decals which still should be present in many shelters which reads "Vandalizing bus shelters is a crime....regular monitoring is in effect".
In addition, we partner with Crimestoppers on a generic campaign every year and we have also worked with the Restorative Justice program in the Schools to have offenders prepare speeches on the consequences and cost of their actions. Sometimes they have even been made to pay for the damages.
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