Décarie: The beginning of the end

The due date to complete phase 3 is tomorrow, September 10. “There haven’t been any delays in the works and the third phase should be over soon if the weather is on our side,” mentioned director of public affairs Paul Lanctôt.

Same goes for the completion of the final phase, which is scheduled for the end of October. According to the initial plans, the road works were expected to start in July and end roughly three months after.

Phase 4 consists in finalizing the last details, like road marking. It should take two weeks to complete both ways.

Parking remains one of the major concerns for business owners on Décarie. The enlargement of sidewalks resulted in parking spaces being moved from the boulevard to adjacent streets, a very unpopular change amongst merchants, even if in the long run a larger number of parking spaces will be available. A total of 500 parking spots is projected, which represents an increase of 37. The bulk of those new spaces will come from a property exchange with the Marguerite-Bourgeois school board. A lot located near Thiemens Boulevard should be given in exchange for one on Ouimet Street, which is currently rented by the Caisse populaire and contains 30 parking spots. During the September 4 council session, the borough’s director Serge Lamontagne was mandated to make the trade happen.

“There’s a rumour going on about a price increase for parking meters on Décarie, said Paul Lanctôt. At the moment, I can assure you that this rumour is entirely false. For now, no increase is planned.”

Also owner of Hobbieville, Mr. Cohenca is wondering what pushed the borough’s leaders to begin the road works on Décarie when the majority of people concerned were against the idea. “During a big meeting with mayor DeSousa at the Centre des loisirs, 90 percent of the people present voted against, and the room was full. We also handed in a petition with a lot of names on it,” told the v-p of the merchants’ association.

According to Mr. Cohenca, every business was affected negatively by the road works. “Revenues were down between 30 and 70 percent for everyone. Everybody was hurt; some closed and others are in bad shape,” he said.

The owners’ spokesperson mentioned that most merchants weren’t too optimistic about the future as well. “Mayor DeSousa wants to pass a law that will force everybody to have signs of the same size. Some owners are really mad about that. For example, the owner of Jean-Coutu will have to pay to change all his signs.”

According to him “the nice thing about Décarie Boulevard is that it’s multicultural. Different sizes and colours signs in many languages are part of what makes this street so special.”

The only thing left to know now is if the people that stopped going on Décarie Boulevard during the road works will be back to see how it turned out.

(Translated by Pascal LeBlanc)

(Photo: Jacques Pharand)