After 28 years, a damaged curb in Winnipeg has now been fixed
A Winnipeg man finally has something he has been waiting for over 28 years … a new curb.
Calvin Hawley lives along Tyrone Bay and back in January 1993, Hawley's curb was damaged by a snowplow during snow removal in the St. Vital neighbourhood. The curb was only repaired last week.
"I remember the exact date, Jan. 26, 1993, and I discovered it at between five and six in the morning and I remember this clearly because that's the day, in the morning, that one of our sons was born," said Hawley.
He said he saw that the street had been cleared of snow and he noticed he would have to shovel some of it because it was blocking his driveway.
"That's when I discovered that a chunk was missing from our curb because as I'm shoveling I hit something that wasn't just snow and ice."
Hawley said he reported the damage a week later and was told crews would come along in the spring and fix it.
Winter turned into spring, spring into summer, and then fall came, and still nothing had been fixed. Hawley again phoned the city about the problem and he was once again told crews would soon come to fix the issue.
"For a while, it was every few months that I would try and check in and then it became a couple of years in between."
He said the calls turned from saying that crews would come to fix the curb to being told it would be fixed as part of a two- or seven-year plan. He was then told the city never received a report.
"After a while you just kind of get tired of chasing the tail," said Hawley.
"What really kind of set this off again was on the morning of Canada Day 2017, beautiful morning, my wife and I are sitting outside having a cup of coffee in the morning and this noise starts up in the bay."
The pair looked at what was happening up the road only to see city crews were repairing a curb that Hawley said had not been damaged as long as his was.
"That kind of just ticked me."
He called the city the next day, reported the problem again and he was given a tracking number for when the problem would be fixed.
"Lo-and-behold, the target resolution date on my case was June 26, 2037. Twenty years in the future."
Hawley said he eventually contacted his councillor Brian Mayes and the pair had been working on getting the curb fixed for the past few years.
"So a couple of weeks ago, they showed up, we all on the bay went, 'Wow, I can't believe they're here, but fantastic that they are.'"
Hawley said he is extremely happy and thankful that the curb had been fixed, noting the repair job looked good.
In a statement to CTV News, a spokesperson for the city said it tries to inspect and repair damaged curbs as soon as possible if they are deemed hazardous. Currently, 1,242 requests have been opened or are in the process of being fixed.
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