In St. Catharines, Inspector Mychaskiw Catches Grant Sign Service Red Handed
In the City of Toronto, when inspectors catch outdoor advertising companies erecting illegal billboards, they do nothing. In St. Catharines, they do things a little bit differently.
On May 18, 2000, the City of St. Catharines Ontario received a complaint about an unsafe billboard at 241 Queenston Street. “I talked to Pattison representatives and got the run around,” reads the complaint. “They cut the trees so you could see the billboard.”
“Structure shows obvious signs of decay… needs repairs,” wrote Inspector Roman Mychaskiw on the bottom of the complaint form.
Inspector Mychaskiw issued this Order to Remedy Unsafe Third Party Sign on June 16, 2000 which ordered Pattison to:
Pattison retained the services of Len Maile, P.Eng. to review the sign. Len reported in this letter dated June 29, 2000 to Gino “Not the Pizza Man” Colorusso of Pattison that “the structure is in need of immediate attention… the faces should be removed immediately in order to remove the wind loading from the frames.” Pattison does appear to have removed the sign faces at this point without removing the rotting structure.
Twelve day later, on July 7, 2000, Inspector Mychaskiw had a talk with Mark Kline of Pattison Outdoor. Inspector Mychaskiw laid out the law - repair the sign and you don’t need a permit, replace the sign and you need a permit:
Pattison Outdoor decided to replace the sign without a permit.
On January 29, 2001, the neighbour called in a complaint about work being done on the sign:
On the same day, Inspector Mychaskiw left a message for Gino “Not the Pizza Man” Colorusso of Pattison informing him that a permit would be required for the work being done. These are his notes:
So, on January 29, 2001, Colorusso, Pattison’s Director of Operations, knew that Inspector Mychaskiw knew that work was proceeding without a permit. That didn’t seem to bother Colorusso.
On February 2, 2001, Inspector Mychaskiw attended 214 Queenston Street and found a Grant Sign Service crew, headed by Jim Vens, leaving the site:
Grant Sign Service is the most prolific lawbreaker in Toronto’s sign construction industry. On the same day, Inspector Mychaskiw issued this Stop Work Order:
The effect of the Stop Work Order was to prevent Pattison from putting sign boards on the sign structure that Grant Sign Service erected. This is a photo of the half-completed 10′X40′ structure:
Pattison then proceeded to apply for a permit. On January 29, 2001, St Catharines informed Pattison, in this fax, that the sign would not be able to obtain a permit for proximity to residential on 200M separation.
Mark Klein then applied for a variance and wrote this letter to the Chief Building Official on February 12, 2001. The Staff Report recommending that St. Catharines City Council reject Pattison’s variance was written on February 20, 2001:
The matter was heard by Executive Committee on March 14, 2001. Sid Catalano of Pattison made a deputation which was captured in the minutes:
St. Catharines City Council then went in camera to receive a report from the City Solicitor. City Council then rejected Pattison’s variance according to page 2 and 3 of this document.
After the variances were rejected, Pattison did not remove the sign poles.
Nine months later, on January 23, 2002, Building Inspector Brian Thiessen wrote this letter to Pattison:
On July 2, 2002, the inspector called Angie Garcia at Pattison:
On May 14, 2003 the inspector left a voice mail for “Denise” at Pattison:
On May 15, 2003 the inspector left a voice mail for Russell Lane at Pattison:
On May 21, 2003 the inspector left another voice mail for Russell Lane at Pattison:
Lane then informed the inspector that Pattison’s “crew was backed up:”
On July 3, 2003, Lane informed the inspector that the sign would be removed by July 18, 2003:
On July 18, 2003, the sign was still there and the inspector called back and left another voice mail for Russell Lane:
On July 21, 2003, the inspector called back and left another voice mail for Russell Lane:
On July 29, 2003, the inspector noted that the sign had been removed:
This blog post documents over two years of Pattison’s non-compliance with the law at 241 Queenston Street in St. Catharines Ontario. It also documents that St. Catharines was able to prevent Pattison from erecting sign faces on their illegal structure by swiftly issuing a Stop Work Order pursuant to the Building Code Act. Toronto’s Building’s Department has repeatedly refused to issue Stop Work Orders against illegal billboards that it knows to be under construction.
October 25th, 2007 at 6:42 am
Would Inspector Roman Mychaskiw like to work in the big City?
I hear that Danny “Human Error” Baird is on his way out and there could be an opening for an inspector at the Toronto MLS……
October 26th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Just out of curiousity, how does St. Catharines handle signs that aren’t falling apart or subject to repeat complaints from neighbours?
Are they just as diligent about other illegal signs?
September 9th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
Wonderful research work. Well done.
This helps us fight sign blight in St. Catharines.
I didn’t know anything about this, even after living here in St. C for over 35 years.
July 28th, 2009 at 12:00 am
I had Roman as an inspector at my house when My neighbor called on me (the Jerk neighbor) for a work permit. As frustrating and costly as it was… Roman was a very helpful and a kind gentleman.