Open utility chamber led to storm sewer — a magnet for area kids
When a utility chamber in an area where children play is left with no cover, you can bet they’ll climb into it and go exploring.
Kids are endlessly curious, and that’s a good thing. It’s how they learn. Some people believe they can’t be supervised too closely, while others understand they should be given enough freedom to figure things out for themselves.
When I was a boy, I announced to my dad that I wanted to hitchhike to Florida. He told me it might be better if I rode my bike. I thought that was a pretty good idea. Ask your mother to pack you some sandwiches, he said.
I got about half an hour out of our little town near Lake Erie when I stopped to eat the two egg salad sandwiches. It dawned on me as I resumed pedalling that there would be no more for the rest of the journey. That was the end of the excursion.
My dad gave me just enough rope to discern that my trip to Florida was a fantasy. That’s how it was back then.
But maybe the line should be drawn at allowing kids easy access to a utility chamber that leads to a storm water sewer main.
Simon Francis, an elementary school teacher who knows about the curious minds of children, emailed me about an uncovered utility chamber in the hydro corridor — basically parkland for local residents — near Willowdale and Bishop avenues, not far from the Finch GO station parking lot.
Francis said his family had called 311 about it more than once over the past two years or so, but the utility chamber remained uncovered.
“Kids from the nearby school go into it,” he said. “There is a 15- to 20-foot drop into the sewer system.
“The city’s solution was to put a pylon there for the last two years, which only serves as a marker for exactly where to find the hole by kids. It would be quite unfortunate if this gets solved by someone’s injury, or worse.”
He sent me another note after the March school break, saying, “last week was a busy one with the middle school kids investigating the sewer.”
I went there and easily found the uncovered chamber — a traffic barrel served as a beacon — and noticed a series of ladderlike rungs down one side, making it easy as pie for youngsters to climb down into it. Status: I sent a note to the city, saying the chamber needs a new lid.
I got a reply saying Toronto Hydro was responsible.
It seemed to me that Toronto Hydro is in the electricity business. It does not operate storm water infrastructure. But what would I know, after 20 years of writing Fixer columns?
So I got in touch with Toronto Hydro. It sent out a guy who looked into it and called me to say it was connected to a storm sewer, which had nothing to do with them.
Toronto Hydro also passed along its findings to the city. Now they were singing a different tune, saying they were again looking into it. I got another note and photos last week saying the frame at the top of the chamber had been repaired and a new lid fastened onto it.