Councillor Karidogiannis says nobody reached out to him to complain
Responding to a complaint about poor sanitation on a street in l’Abord-à-Plouffe, the Laval city councillor responsible for the district has the following advice: call me first, says Vasilios Karidogiannis, before contacting the media.
Last week, Sotirios Limnios, the owner of a small apartment block on 2nd St. near the corner of 92nd Ave., took The Laval News on a short stroll along a stretch of 2nd St.
Bio-waste hazard?
He claimed it has been turned into an unsanitary mess strewed with bio-waste, including soiled disposable diapers, old vinyl medical gloves and broken glass.
As well, an adjacent private lot was littered with an old car tire, while it was also evident that a nearby street curb, strewn with old branches and leaves left over from last fall, hadn’t been subjected to the usual post-winter cleanup that Laval public works crews are expected to complete each year in the spring.
“They came during the winter to clean the snow off the streets, but what’s left as you can see will stay for all the rest of the summer,” he said, pointing to a thick accumulation of old branches and leaves on the curbside underneath a vehicle parked on the street.
Curbside diapers
A few metres away beside a sidewalk curb on the other side of 2nd St., he pointed to a disposable adult diaper which had been discarded. As a piece of potentially hazardous trash, he suggested that it was supposed to be dealt with separately from the City of Laval’s regular refuse collections for recyclable and non-recyclable waste materials.
He maintains that the diapers came from a nearby household where an elderly woman is being cared for by a nursing attendant, who hasn’t been following sanitary guidelines for disposing properly of potentially hazardous bio-waste.
After being briefed by The Laval News on the complaint, Karidogiannis responded in a phone interview, “What I’m trying to understand is that he called you guys to complain? Instead of calling me to complain? I find that unfortunate that he would choose the media route for this.”
‘He called you guys to complain? Instead of calling me to complain?’
He denied ever being contacted for assistance on the matter. For his part, the building owner acknowledged being aware Vasilios Karidogiannis is his city councillor, but didn’t confirm whether he’d reached out to him.
Karidogiannis insisted that whatever the issues, “I’m very easy to reach,” he said, noting that his contact information (including phone number and e-mail address) are posted on the Laval city council website, along with contact information for all city councillors and the mayor.
