If you missed the last post about today’s parking ban, please go back and check it.

The Central Street Bridge over the Pawtucket Canal will be closed to southbound traffic starting next week; only northbound traffic will be allowed through. This means that, unless you are headed for Merrimack Street, you should turn left when exiting the lot or the city garage onto Market Street. There will be no right turn allowed from Market on to Central. The partial closure of the bridge will facilitate repairs and is expected to last for five months.

For more information about the bridge work, and/or to preregister for a virtual, public, informational meeting tonight or tomorrow night, click here.

Also, a resident is both offering information and seeking advice about our heating systems. I think I should mention that air from my own heating unit hasn’t been overly hot these past few days—with everyone home and the temperatures so low, it’s no surprise that the boilers are having a hard time keeping the water temperature in the heating loop toasty warm. At least today’s snow is accompanied by somewhat milder temperatures..

In any case, here are his remarks. Feel free to respond in the comments. I also recommend using the bulletin board search function if people ever want to find older discussions on a specific subject.

Hi Folks, 
Having some heating issues with the upstairs heater (working fan, new thermostat, but little/no heat), which is definitely not a great problem to have on the brink of another snowmageddon. 

 Is A1 Maintenance Master still the go-to recommendation for servicing of the unique heating/cooling units in our building? I found the one in this unit to be a ClimateMaster 81615GSSSSCOP, which I found a neat little “Decoder Ring” for off the Discontinued Products Page which helps break down what the serial numbers on these things actually mean, but that does little to help me understand what may be occurring with the absence of heat from the unit. 

Curious if other neighbors have other local service companies you’ve worked with and/or any experiences you can share about cost/scale of upgrading your heating units? Assuming that has to occur in coordination with new drywall around the heating unit itself or are these capable of being slid/popped into the existing wall space? 

There is a parking ban going into effect at 3:00 today. The official announcement appears below. If your car is parked in our surface lot it needs to be moved ASAP or it may be towed. Two garages within walking distance allow residents free parking during a snow emergency, but NOT the Leo Roy Garage next door. The temporarily free-to-residents garages are the Lower Locks Garage on Warren Street and the George Ayotte Garage near the Post Office.

Message from a resident:

Free: Water filtration for Kenwood, Maytag and Whirlpool refrigerators. About 8” tall.

Replaces the following #’d filters: UKF8001, UKF8001AXX, 46-906, 46-9992.

Left in foyer. If someone could use it, call Georgi at 978-764-5570.

There will be two tables in the atrium tonight and Tuesday from 6:00PM–8:00PM for Canal Place One residents picking up additional fobs. The new fobs will be needed going forward for all exterior doors and the mailroom lobby door. Free fobs are being distributed based on the number currently tied to your unit, so bring your old ones along to confirm how many you currently have. But you will need to keep BOTH sets for a few days until the switchover is complete. Additional fobs are $10 each.

Properly worn masks and social distancing are required in all common areas.

If your unit is fine with the single fob you received in December then there’s no need to stop by the tables.

During those same hours, there will be two tables in the lobby distributing fobs for the exterior mailroom door to residents of Canal Place II and Canal Place III. Residents of Canal Place One might want to avoid the lobby/mailroom area during those hours to reduce traffic.

Properly worn masks and social distancing are required in all common areas.

The entire building will be switching to a new fob system on Wednesday, the 20th, to enhance security for everyone. This includes both mailroom doors and all other exterior doors (excepting the basement garage overhead door which is a separate system). Canal Place (one) residents received one of the new fobs back in December and will be able to pick up additional fobs next week as per e-mails that went out from Royal Management.

Folks needing access to the mailroom via the exterior door should contact their own management or condo board about obtaining their fob. Signs have been posted in the mailroom to this effect.

Please feel free to spread this information to complex residents who may not subscribe to this bulletin board. Both the Association Board and the management company are eager to have the switchover go smoothly and to minimize any inconvenience.

Just a reminder for people to please, please be considerate of their neighbors when it comes to smoking. Numerous systems in this building connect, and smoke from one unit can seep into neighboring ones via the heating/cooling units, the kitchen/bathroom vents, and the fire corridors. There are health issues involved with second-hand smoke, and those folks with allergies or asthma have real and immediate problems with it.

Please consider taking your smoking outside whenever possible (and 30 feet away from any building entrances as per Association policy). We’ve been blessed with a fairly mild winter so far so a walk outside might offer a bit of relief from one’s pandemic-induced cabin fever!

If anyone has suggestions for blocking smoke from entering a unit, particularly through the HVAC system, any advice added in the comments would be much appreciated.

Someone had a misaddressed package shipped to their unit via FedEx and that resident is holding it until we can find the correct address/recipient. If you’re expecting something from Whirlpool’s parts department and it’s gone missing, and your initials are D.C., please contact me and we’ll see about getting it to you.

(There’s also an email out to Whirlpool’s customer service department; we’ll see which way produces results faster!)

The printer was late this year getting our coupon books done because of the pandemic, and USPS is being slow for similar reasons. As a result, some, if not all, of us have not received our payment books. If you would like to pay by check without waiting for the coupon book, and to insure that you don’t incur late fees, please mail your check to: Canal Place Condominium, c/o Avatar Properties, 163 Main Street, Salem, NH 03079.

Condo fees remain the same as last year. For detailed information about fees and other ways to pay, please see the PDF that Cathy send out via email on December 28th.

I’m told the mailroom is loaded with packages this afternoon. Please consider taking a look and removing any that belong to you. Many thanks!

The city has posted this year’s tree disposal info (natural trees only). Please wrap your tree before carrying it through our common areas to avoid a trail of pine needles—an old sheet works fine for this. Residents are also asked to use the stairs or freight elevator rather than the front elevator for trees.

Christmas Tree Disposal

There are 9 Christmas tree drop-off locations throughout the City:

Acre – North Common 
Belvidere – Cawley Stadium & Shedd Park 
Back Central – South Common 
Highlands – Hadley Park & Callery Park 
Centralville – Gage Field 
Pawtucketville – Elks Club 
Sacred Heart – Ventura Field (Manning Field)

All drop-off sites are open December 26 – January 15. 

Please remove all lights, ornaments and stands. Natural trees only. No plastic bags. Sites will be under surveillance.

Map of drop off sites here.