NEWS AND ANALYSIS

Park Ave. business community fears worst

By P.A. Sévigny The Suburban Following the city's recent announcement about its intention to replace the major water aqueduct running under one of its busiest streets, more than 100 people, including many of Park Avenue's leading businesspeople, attended what was described as "an information session" held in the Mile End Library's second floor conference room. "I don't believe this is an 'information session," said Jimmy Zoubris, a local businessman who is sometimes described as "the Mayor of Park Avenue." "As far as I'm concerned, I think it sounds more like a done deal." While veteran city councilor Richard Deschamps, the city executive committee member in charge of civic infrastructure, continued to insist nothing had "as yet" been decided, his tone and the rest of the evening's discussion left little to the imagination as the tight-knit Park Avenue business community began to wonder how the city's immediate plans for their street would affect their bottom line. Following Deschamps' short address, Plateau Borough Mayor Luc Ferrandez was less circumspect about what the city's plans would mean for business and daily traffic along what is one of the city's busiest streets. "The bottom line is the work must get done and we know the kind of impact it's going to have on everybody concerned," said Ferrandez. While Ferrandez agreed with various city engineers about the necessity to replace the city's decrepit aqueduct, he told The Suburban he has no illusions about what the new construction will mean for traffic and business interests along the western edge of the borough. "It's going to be a mess," he said, "a real mess." City engineer Caterina Milioto took over with a powerpoint presentation to describe the details of the proposed work scheduled to take place over the next three years. To be fair, Milioto's presentation demonstrates how the city is anxious to avoid the mistakes done when a similar project

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Cont'd from page 1 her money and where it was located, and what the profit or loss was for that month. "The statement she received was from a very large brokerage firm in the U.S. called F.C. Stone, one of the largest commodity securities brokers in America, and it showed what she had in her account," he added. "In May of this year, she was building an apartment in Jerusalem and needed some money from her account. She first asked for $200,000, which Mr. Newman wired to her. Then she needed another $200,000, and she started to have trouble getting that money. She received all kinds of excuses why the money couldn't come." Stein said Olanoff then called F.C. Stone directly, and was told there was no account at the firm in her name or any reference to Newman. Olanoff was then asked to fax copies of her statement to F.C. Stone, and the next call she received was from the FBI. "They advised her the statements were forgeries and that F.C. Stone hadn't used that letterhead in over 10 years," Stein said. "At that point, she e-mailed Mr. Newman and asked for the return of her money and he replied not to worry, that the money was at Scotiabank and he would wire her the money. Some e-mails went back and forth, with excuses why the money could not come immediately, and then we were called and we intervened in the file. We communicated with the bank and, needless to say, they advised us there was no such wire transfer or any instructions to do so, and even if there was, there wouldn't be sufficient funds to make the transfer." tore up Montreal's busy St. Lawrence Blvd., with unfortunate, if not fatal, consequences for many of its local business interests. While the city's 102-year-old aqueduct remains the project's priority, both Hydro-Quebec and the city's Gaz Metropolitain intend to use the opportunity to do some of their own urgently required repair and restoration work. Over the next few weeks, Hydro-Quebec will be opening up selected sites along the eastern side of the street in order to build new transformer stations. As of next October, crews will begin to tear up the western side of the street from Bernard in the north all the way down to the south side of Laurier in order to replace the ancient aqueduct with a new one better suited to the growing demands of the nearby community. Sidewalks on both sides of the street will be kept open while every effort will be made to keep traffic flowing during peak hours. Construction will be halted for a month during the busy Christmas season while every effort would be made to find alternative parking spots. "I've been looking for alternative parking spots for the past 22 years," said Zoubris. "If you find any, please let me know about it." While businesspeople, including Zoubris, reluctantly accepted Deschamps' reasons for the massive infrastructure project, they still wondered why it would take up to three years to complete the work. Apart from what many considered to be a "spotty" consultation process, others wondered why it took so long for the city to discover one of their principal aqueducts was falling apart. n

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