Practice Task 28 · Parts 1–4

From: Priya Ramnarine, Resident, Larkspur Crescent

To: Councillor Owen Fitch, Ward 6

Subject: Streetlights out for over a month

Dear Councillor Fitch,

I am writing on behalf of several neighbours on Larkspur Crescent, where four consecutive streetlights between numbers 12 and 28 have been dark since early September. I first reported this through the city's online portal on September 8th and received an automated confirmation, but nothing has changed since then, and it is now the middle of October.

The stretch of sidewalk under those lights is the route most of us use to reach the Fenwick Avenue bus stop, and with the evenings getting darker earlier, several parents on the street have started driving their children the short distance rather than letting them walk, which seems unnecessary if the lighting were simply repaired.

I called the public works line last week and was told the outage had been logged as a single-bulb replacement, which does not match what four separate households have observed, since it appears the whole span lost power at once rather than one bulb burning out. I wonder whether the underlying cable was damaged during the sidewalk resurfacing project that finished in August.

Could you look into whether this has been misclassified, and let us know a realistic timeline for repair? I would also like to know whether residents can request a temporary lighting solution, such as a portable unit, while the permanent fix is scheduled.

Thank you for your attention to this,

Priya Ramnarine

— REPLY —

From: Councillor Owen Fitch

To: Priya Ramnarine

Subject: RE: Streetlights out for over a month

Dear Ms. Ramnarine,

Thank you for flagging this, and for the useful detail about the resurfacing timeline. I checked with public works this morning, and you are right that the ticket had been filed as a single-bulb issue. I have had it reclassified as a possible cable fault, which moves it into a different repair queue with a crew that can test the underlying wiring rather than just swapping bulbs.

The crew is now scheduled to inspect the span on October 24th, and if the cable is confirmed damaged, the repair itself typically takes three to five business days once parts are ordered, since the connector used on that section is not kept in regular stock at the depot.

On temporary lighting: the city does have a small number of portable solar units for exactly this kind of situation, but they are allocated by request through the ward office rather than automatically, so I have gone ahead and requested two units for your stretch of sidewalk. They should arrive within the week, well before the permanent repair.

I will also ask whether the resurfacing contractor's work is connected, since if their equipment damaged the cable, the city may be able to recover the repair cost rather than covering it from the general lighting budget.

I appreciate you and your neighbours bringing this forward with such clear detail.

Councillor Owen Fitch