Here are some recent successes the The Fixer has had in fixing things around town:

On the move

Hymus Road is a little less trashy these days, after the city finally did the right thing and got rid of an illegally dumped motor home and food wagon.

On Jan. 9, I reported on a crumbling motor home stuffed with trash and an old mobile food wagon next to it on Hymus, in a Scarborough industrial area, that had languished next to the curb since last summer.

The city posted notices in September on both vehicles that said the owners had seven days to move them. The notices amounted to a joke, since neither had licence plates and it was obvious they’d been illegally dumped.

Transportation services told me it was a big job to move them, but they’d get to it as soon as possible. Dan Bonnett, who first told me about it, emailed to say the city moved the vehicles on Feb. 28

Poles apart

My Feb. 25 column was about a new utility pole recently erected in front of a pedestrian crossing signal at the northwest corner of Brown’s Line and Horner Avenue, preventing people from seeing the signal.

The pedestrian signal was mounted on an old pole for which the new one is a replacement, but the old pole has yet to be removed and the crossing signal was still attached to it.

The new pole was perfectly positioned to obscure the signal from the sight of pedestrians and drivers, but apparently nobody thought to move the signal from the old pole to its replacement.

After I pointed it out to transportation services, I was told they’d move the signal right away. Piero Bellina, who informed me about the problem, emailed about a week after my column to say it had been moved.

Construction cleanup

On Mar. 4, I reported on the never-ending construction at the Albion Road underpass beneath Highway 427, which frequently requires lane closures on Albion and has resulted in mud-coated sidewalks in the underpass.

The city told me it quickly ordered the contractor to clean up the mud, but it took the provincial transportation ministry about a week to provide its side of the story and address the muddy sidewalks issue.

“The work on Albion Road requires multiple staging since it is directly related to the works happening above on Highway 427 that also has various traffic staging requirements,” said a note from LINK427, which is widening lanes on the highway. “The latest work on Albion started on Jan. 6, where LINK427 has been widening southbound lanes. Work in that area is scheduled to be completed in June.”

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The note went on to say that the mud was removed from the sidewalks after the city showed up, and that LINK427 “takes the matter very seriously.”

You betcha.