In anticipation of moving away, Fred has tendered his resignation to the Canal Place Board. The means we need a volunteer to fill his Board seat for the remainder of his term which ends in May. If you’re a Canal Place One owner, please consider volunteering for this interesting and important aspect of association membership.

Smoke seeping in from other units continues to be a problem for some residents, not only tobacco smoke, but the particularly pungent smell of marijuana. Please, please be considerate of your neighbors. Smoke can travel from unit to unit via the building’s many connecting systems as well as inside the walls and along the fire corridors.

Please take any smoking outside whenever possible, and use air filters, open windows and vent fans to lessen the problem inside. Consider ways you might keep smoke from traveling into common areas or your neighbors’ units, such as calking any openings where your walls meet the big upstairs beams. If you’re using marijuana, whether for medical or recreational reasons, please consider other ways to ingest it. Any help in alleviating this problem would be much appreciated!

On a different topic, a resident has asked me to point out a local fundraiser that they thought worthwhile. It’s a modest goal for STEM classroom supplies and it’s easy to donate to via PayPal or charge card. I did!

And finally, people particularly interested in the recent post about replacing windows might want to check out several comments that were made in response. For those who were unaware (like me), Cathy clarified at Wednesday’s board meeting that when people talk about window replacement in this building it’s the glass that gets replaced, not the whole window.

The annual Kinetic Sculpture Race is this Saturday. This means a section of Market Street will be closed for most of the day—in previous years it’s been closed from Shattuck to Palmer but I can’t find specifics for this year. It should be a fun day of costumes, music, face painting, wildly creative vehicles, and lovely summer weather.

More info can be found at their website and in the Lowell Sun.

Several people responded to the recent post about Window Replacement. If you haven’t already seen their comments and are interested you might want to check them out.

A resident is wondering if anyone has had their windows replaced, and if so, is this a big undertaking? And who did you use?

I know there are plenty of people who’ve had windows replaced, and my own unit is going to need new ones at some point, so if anyone would like to post in the comments about their experience and who they used, it would be much appreciated.

In the meantime, the question of window replacement has come up before, although mostly about companies used and not the actual process. Here’s an old post from two years ago.

The info below comes from a resident. My own unit is on the fourth floor on the Market Street side and we haven’t noticed anything but we’re below the level of the roof in question.

For people living on the upper floors facing Market Street….that loud continuous screeching noise is coming from the Market Mills building roof. This is the building with the daycare on the ground floor. It’s been loud for a week now. I contacted them last week but it hasn’t been resolved yet.
If this is bothering you too….please contact them.

market@peabodyproperties.com

Sandy Larsen-Souza
Property Manager
Market Mill Apartments
The Majestic Apartments
246 Market St.
Lowell, MA 01852
(978) 454-8030

Every so often a resident will have problems with cigarette smoke getting into their unit from a neighbor’s, often through the fire corridor or the bathroom/kitchen vent systems, or possibly the heating/cooling system. A resident is asking if anyone has found ways to block this problem. For people with asthma it’s more than just a minor inconvenience. Feel free to offer suggestions in the comments.

And for those people who do smoke, please consider using air filters or taking it outside for the sake of your neighbors.

On the lighter side, there are three festivals going on in town tomorrow for those of you who want to hold onto summer as long as you can: The Annual Fiddle and Banjo Fest from 10 to 6 at Boarding House Park, The Gurjar India Heritage Fest at Lowell Heritage State Park on Pawtucket Blvd. from noon to 6, and The Blues & Brews Fest (requires tickets) at JFK plaza.

Plus Western Ave Studios are having their monthly First Saturday Open Studios from noon to 5.

Just a reminder that there will be a one hour interruption in Comcast service starting at 5:00am either tomorrow or Friday due to work in the area.

This year’s Folk Festival runs from this Friday evening through Sunday afternoon. It’s a fun weekend full of free music and interesting food but it also means lots of road closures and changes in traffic patterns. For more information, click here; road closures are listed toward the bottom of the page.

Note that Market Street will be closed from Palmer Street to Dutton Street for most of the weekend so any trips in and out will have to be via Central Street. Based on past experience, I’d expect concrete barriers to the Dutton Street side of our driveway and moveable ones to the Palmer Street side so that residents can still get in and out. The Leo Roy Garage should be open for business as usual.

The sign that’s located in various spots around the building about composting can now be found on this site if anyone wants to have in on hand for info: https://www.canalplaceone.com/compost2.pdf (It doesn’t say so on the sign, but tea bags and coffee grounds and filters are also okay.) And the bucket next to the composter is for sprinkling dirt over the compost material – it cuts down on fruit flies and adds to the biomass thus speeding the decomposition

Also: Someone on the second floor is looking for info about exposing the pillar near the downstairs bathroom. Here’s the question:

Hello 2nd floor,
Are there any 2nd floor units that have the large round column between the kitchen and bath exposed? If so, I’d like to see how it was finished around the ceiling. 
Thanks,
Jim #214

(Personally, I was under the impression that the 2nd floor units had green, metal support columns with a fairly narrow diameter rather than the large wooden ones that are on the upper floors, but I could be mistaken.) Does anyone have any info? Thanks!

For those of you who don’t know, the plans for developing the Hamilton Canal Innovation District include a garage in the open area behind Canal Place III. The project manager is reaching out to local residents with the following message:

Hello Everyone. We wanted to reach out to each of you as the HCID garage is close to beginning construction. We have scheduled a meeting time of July 16^th at 6pm at LTC for folks to hear about the project, including going over the design and construction schedule. Please feel free to help spread the word and let me know if you have any questions. ———Regards, Joe  

Joseph Giniewicz, AICP | Urban Renewal Project Manager, Department of Planning and Development, The City of Lowell
375 Merrimack St., Lowell, MA 01852, t: 978.674.4252, f: 978.446.7103,  email: Jginiewicz@lowellma.gov

For those of you who get lots of Amazon deliveries, a message from Craig:

I contacted Amazon this evening to try to address delivery issues with their “Amazon Logistics” delivery service. As everyone learns sooner or later, packages are often left inside the wrong Canal Place building, as mine and four others were left inside Canal 2 today.
The customer service employee was helpful to review a satellite image of the complex with me, and note which building contains my apartment. Unfortunately, their system cannot do this in general for all Canal Place 1, 2, and 3 addresses. Each Amazon customer needs to go through this same process individually to ensure they give their drivers the necessary directions. 
So, in case people would like to ensure their Amazon packages are delivered properly: call 1-877-252-2701, and press 1 for delivery issues. Confirm your account details with the customer service employee, and indicate which Canal Place building contains your apartment, and where your packages should be left.

There’s also an online map for delivery people if offering a link to it is any help in this or similar situations (although it should be made clear that the red star at the loading dock is primarily for furniture or large appliances—most deliveries come in through the front entrance). https://www.canalplaceone.com/map.pdf

Also—The hope for an in-building exercise/yoga class has had to be quashed because of legal concerns surrounding running a business (the instructor would have to be paid) in a residential building.