AGM Reportback

About 60 people attended the AGM held at the Parkhurst Primary School on March 28th. After the Chairman's report, the Committee were voted on again. Then we had talks on Crime in the Suburb by Senior Superintendent Moodley of the Parkview Police Station, Clr. Don Forbes from Victory Park and our guest speaker, ex-Stander Gang bank robber turned motivational speaker Allan Heyl from Craighall.

Over 60s Tea Party

We had a record attendance of over 100 people for the over 60s tea party held at the Parkhurst Primary School in February. We would like to thank the following businesses and institutions who donated prizes or helped with the logistics of the party:

Parklands Pharmacy, Gwen's Style, Parkhurst Bookshop, Pick n Pay Victory Park, Treasure Trove, Park Liquor, Opticien, Nice on 4th, Velvet Glove Beauty Solutions, Solly Kramers Bottle Store, Friendly Grocer, Colourful Nursery Group, Sugar n' Ice, Diana Edmundson, and to Parkhurst Primary for allowing us to use their school hall and to the pupils who helped as waiters and sang two songs.

Public Space Management

In April, the PVRA Committee has instituted a new portfolio, Public Space Management, to be headed by Cheryl Labuschagne. It is intended that this new sub-committee will focus on reversing the trend in Parkhurst of public spaces such as pavements and other open spaces being appropriated for personal gain, either permanently or temporarily.

Together with Councillor Sharon Sabbagh, the PVRA will "work to make all open/ public spaces safe & user friendly to all in the suburb." Should any resident be interested in assisting on this sub-committee, please contact Cheryl on 083-637-0394.

House Numbers

You know the story, you keep getting pestered because the neighbour's don't have a number. Cheryl Labuschagne, our new Public Space Management Sub-Committee chair who is researching these sorts of topics, told me that legally, every stand has to have a number.
Snr. Supt. Moodley of the Parkview Police Station said that having a large and easy to read house number makes the job of policing the suburb much easier, especially when it is your house that has been burgled.

So if you haven't got one, go out and buy one, or two, or three, depending where you live. A note of warning though, stay clear of brass numbers as they get prised off the wall by metal scavengers.

ADSL Blues

I mentioned in the last Parkhurst Post that I have been having problems with my Telkom ADSL line. I lost my ability to receive ADSL on the 11th January and after 4 call outs, swopping my ADSL router, trying different things, I was told that there was no way I was going to be able to get ADSL.

My house at the bottom of 16th Street was too far from the Rosebank exchange. Although in theory you only need to be within 5 km of the exchange, in practice the lines in our area don't run directly from the exchange to the house. They run along streets which means that they don't follow a direct route. Sometimes they have to run in a different direction to link up with other cabling.

Furthermore, they are old and their carrying capacity is reduced. And Telkom, in aggressively rolling out their ADSL service, have severely overloaded their system. I was told that they should only be using 20-30% of the capacity for ADSL, but that they are currently using 70%.
So even if you have ADSL, the service is woefully slow and unreliable. This certainly backs up my experience over the past year where even when I had the ADSL running, it was slow and worked intermittently.
Couple this with poor service because I was registered as a home user, I often had to wait from 1-2 weeks for technician to show up. He would fiddle around and get it working, only for it to stop again the next day or at the first bit of lightning. Because ha had fixed the problem, the fault had been cleared and you have start the process of registering a new fault and waiting another week or two. And on their “help” line you can often wait for over an hour for the call to be answered.
In Parkhurst we have serious problem with the houses in the Cul-de-Sacs near the Spruit and in the streets near the border with Craighall Park (especially the street cabinets STC M16 and STC P7). What is needed are what Telkom call a “Mini D/Slam Box.” Basically it is a mini-exchange placed in a problem area that can carry 300-400 ADSL subscribers that has its own dedicated digital link with the Rosebank exchange. Users in the area connect with it and the service is fast and efficient. But it is expensive to install one and Telkom are reluctant to put them into marginal areas. Craighall Park and Illovo have them as they are areas that are definitely too far away from their nearest exchange. But in Parkhurst is one of those areas in the grey zone.

The upshot of all of this is that I now have iBurst. The technician came out and we climbed on the roof to determine where I can receive the best signal from the Northcliff Water Tower. I now have a fast (well much faster than Telkom's ADSL service) and convenient broadband wireless service. At last…

iBurst Tower

While we are on the subject, iBurst have asked the PVRA about mounting a transmitter on the top of Park Centre (i.e. the building that houses the chemist) on the cnr of 12th At and 4th Ave.

From what I can see, the type of radiation that will emanate from the tower is a very specifically directed low level or non-ionising radiation. It is different to the type of radiation that is emitted by cell phone towers.

It is difficult to determine what is what among the scientific gobbledegook, but the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection in the USA seemed to have the best summary (see http://www.nj.gov/dep/rpp/nrs/index.htm to read about the different types of radiation threats):

Point-to-point microwave relay antennas transmit and receive low power microwave signals across relatively short distances. These antennas are usually rectangular or circular in shape and have a variety of uses such as transmitting telephone and telegraph messages and serving as links between broadcast or cable TV studios and broadcast antennas. Microwave signals from these antennas travel in a directed, narrow beam from a transmitting to a receiving antenna and the dispersion of microwave energy outside the beam path is minimal or insignificant. The emission of radiation from microwave point-to-point communications antennas is regulated in New Jersey under the Radio Frequency Radiation statute, N.J.A.C. 7:28-42.

Microwave antennas mounted on free-standing towers or water towers typically result in ground-level radiation fields many orders of magnitude below the limits specified in Subchapter 42. Based on current research findings, it is not expected that any adverse health effects would result from exposure to radiation levels under these circumstances. As a comparison, radiation levels on the ground from these antennas are typically 10,000 times lower than the normal leakage encountered a few inches from the surface of a microwave oven. Some antennas may be mounted on rooftops or water towers. In these situations, for a few antennas, Subchapter 42 limits may be exceeded if one is standing directly in front of the antenna, a few inches from the antenna face. For many other antennas, the power levels are so low that Subchapter 42 limits will never be exceeded, even right up against the antenna.

While I do have a kind of vested interest because I use iBurst, I am happy with my current set-up for receiving their signal from Northcliff. So I don't mind one way or another whether Parkhurst gets an antenna. But, if anybody in Parkhurst has any more info or comments please send them through our office in Nan Roberts Estates in 4th Avenue or drop an e-mail to Ros at rusdin@iafrica.com.

• Trash in the Suburb

We are in the process of producing notices that will be given to residents and businesses who are leaving their trash out on incorrect days or making a mess on their sidewalks. But, we want to give you a head's up in the meantime, so here is the basic text of the notice so you can start working on your and your neighbour's sidewalk and trash problems.

Please note that the Pikitup garbage collection day in Parkhurst is on Monday and that only trash placed inside the plastic wheelie bins will be removed by Pikitup. Loose bags and other waste left on the sidewalk or road will be left.

The placing of garbage bags and other waste on the sidewalks and road is illegal and can attract a fine of R500.

If you want to report illegal dumping or serial repeat dumpers, then you can call the Environmental Health department on 011 881 6305 or Pikitup call centre on 011-712-5200 and record a complaint (keep a record of the reference number) which will take up to a week or two to resolve.

BUT the best way to resolve any issues is to first try and do it in a positive and pleasant manner by following one or more of the following guidelines.

1) RECYCLING: You can reduce your weekly waste by recycling:

• Separate out paper products and leaving them out every other Wednesday for Mondi to collect.

• The Victory Park recycling site in Victory Park Rd (open 7 days a week 7am-7pm - get there early on weekends) near Pirates accepts garden refuse, wood, chipboard, metal, paper, plastic, old batteries and computer equipment and small amounts of builders rubble.

• Resolution Recycling offer a great service - for R360 a year, they will drop off a wheelie bin into which you place ALL your recyclable waste such as paper, metal, plastic, batteries, printer cartridges, etc. - and then they collect it every two weeks on Mondays (Contact: 011-614-7905 or resolutionrecycling@54.co.za).

2) If you only have a few bags of trash this one time, you can ask your neighbours if you can put it in their bins if there is any room, provide the bin-lids stay closed.

3) If you consistently have extra trash at your home, then you can call Pikitup Call Centre on 011-375-5555 and order a second bin for R35.50 extra per month. You will need your rates and services account number.

4) If you have too much household trash or you are cleaning out your garage and there is too much to take in your car to the Victory Park dump you can hire a mini-bin from Mini-Bin Hire in Craighall Park: 2 and 3 m3 bins can be used for builder's rubble and a 4 m3 bin can have some rubble, but is also suitable for dry-walling, garage cleanups, etc. Cost start at R330 for 2 full days. If you say you saw this article in Parkhurst Post, you will get an extra day's grace. Call Avril on 011-787-9303.

Smelly River & Donga Update

In the last Post I wrote about the problems we were having with raw sewerage in the Parkhurst Donga that was causing health issues o the residents and an environmental problem where it joined the Braamfontein Spruit. This elicited several e-mails from the residents downstream of the confluence who complained about the smell.

To their credit, The City was quick to move on the issue. The Environmental Health inspector came out and I showed him the problem and water samples were taken. An inspection team then investigated the donga and found a major sewerage leak under 1st Avenue West. This has been repaired and I am happy to report that the smell and raw sewerage problem has been resolved.

However, because of the overloading of our ageing sewerage and waste water system by the densification and development in our area, there are likely to be more issues in the future. Please let us know if you spot or notice any problems.

Double Billing

As you know, there is a city wide problem with our municipal billing. Last year some of the Parkhurst residents brought to my attention that many are being double billed for the plastic garbage bins.

About 20 residents have sent through their invoices to me and going on the normal response rate of 5% to such issues this means that we have about 400 houses (or 20%) of the residential units in Parkhurst who have this problem. While it is only R6 a month, it does mount up and why should we have to pay extra anyway.

So what can we do about it?

The first thing to do is to follow the correct channels in the city and keep detailed notes. One resident contacted me and told me how she managed to get her refund. On the 14th November 2006 she called the 011-375-5555 number and spoke to the Pikitup call centre requesting a refund of R6.10 per month. She was told it would take about eight weeks. Then a few days later she was phoned by a Pikitup representative who asked her when she wanted her second bin. After emphatically stating that she DIDN'T want ANOTHER bin, she received a refund of R201.41 on her February 2007 statement.

The key thing here is to make a note who the time you called, who you spoke to and what your reference number is. Keep your cool and be prepared for some frustration. But it does work.

If you are really at your wits end after going through the correct channels, you can contact DA Councillor Dr. Dion George who heads “Operation Correct Billing. ONLY use this recourse as a last resort. You will need to show that you have done everything you can yourself and are now at your wits end. Contact him 011-881-6069 / 082-459-9342 / dpg@wol.co.za.

When I contacted Pikitup to find out about procedures re billing and bins, I met a stony silence when I said that people are being charged R6.10 a month for their second bin (whether they had one or not). The correct charge is R R35.50 for a second bin. It seems the Pikitup call centre is giving out the wrong info on 2nd bin charges and so those of you who have two bins and are paying R12.10 a month, you better not keep quiet (or own up and get embroiled in another billing mess).

Take a Deep Breath

Parkhurst resident Syd Druin is a surprisingly young and sprightly looking 84 year old ex Hatha yoga teacher. Still flexible and nimble, he now teaches people the correct way of breathing and physical exercises to help the chest and lungs . People suffering from asthma, emphysema and others with breathing or lung problems have been benefitting from his expertise over the past 10 years.

But, bad breathing often has a negative health effect on people who are just plain stressed out and living an unhealthy lifestyle. Basically if your lungs don't get enough oxygen in them to get into the bloodstream and feed your cells, you can become lethargic, tired and unable to cope with our stressed lives in Johannesburg. Using his breathing techniques and exercises to combat bad posture, you can help your body repair itself and get a new natural boost of life and energy.

He will visit you in your home and his exercise regime comes with a free assessment. Contact him on 011-447-3138 / 082-687-2277 / packiq@global.co.za