Toronto Fire Service crew extinguished a two-alarm house fire on Coxwell Ave. between Earl Haig Ave. and Currie Ave. Friday without apparent injury. The building is among several semi-detached homes along the west side of Coxwell opposite Earl Haig Jr. Public School and described as a multi-unit residence. Flames and smoke burst out of the building after 5 p.m. causing an urgent response by, at one point, 24 trucks. In the event, nine vehicles and 35 personnel stayed to fight the fire.

Video was removed: These are scenes from Animal Adveture Park in Harpursvile, New York where the pregnant giraffe is said to very close to delivering. At noon Friday, as many as 250,000 people were watching.

Ontario Justice Carolyn Horkins has delivered a harsh opinion on food heiress Eleanor McCain. Horkins says in a March 22 statement that McCain has not denied that she “has embarked on a vindictive path” to ruin her estranged husband Jeff Melanson professionally and financially. Melanson resigned as head of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) last year merely 18 months into his five-year mandate amidst allegations of impropriety from McCain. Judge Horkins is pressuring McCain to move ahead on her application for annulment calling the delay “a vindictive, time-consuming and costly approach.” Writing in the Toronto Star, reporter Sammy Hudes says McCain is resisting an immediate hearing saying that her obligations to a project called “True North: The Canadian Songbook” for which she is the executive producer, is too important and time consuming to permit any distraction. She has also offered a letter from her doctor stating that she should “avoid the stress of dealing with both of these matters simultaneously.” Judge Horkins says that Melanson “has every reason to be concerned with the future cost of this litigation. He has had to borrow money from friends and family, use his line of credit and sell his condominium to access the net value. He is unemployed and cannot find a new job.” Writer Hudes notes that Mr. Melanson is seeking a $5-million payment from McCain as outlined in their pre-nuptial agreement. It is not said whether $5 million is a maximum amount possible in a negotiation or a pre-set sum on divorce.

After opening 26 stores in just three months, high-flying Dollarama has announced it will begin accepting credit cards in 2018. Sales are booming at outlets like the Mt. Pleasant Rd. Dollarama and the impact has sent the firm’s shares to a high on the TSX this week. It increased its price ceiling to $4 last year. Dollarama also revised its long-term target to 1,700 stores from 1,400 stores, over the next 8 to 10 years across Canada.

CREDIT CARDS

The decision to accept credit cards may seem inevitable as Dollarama grew. Since it’s beginning, it has refused to take Visa and MasterCard, concluding that the fees would offset any increased sales. As forms of payment increase however, both consumers and retailers are relying less on cash. Credit card companies have tried hard to blur the difference between debit and credit purchases. Nonetheless, the prize of landing Dollarama must have generated some excellent offers from Visa and MC. It will be interesting to see if Amex is allowed in.

Mt. Pleasant Dollamara preparing to open

The government has devised a plan to store excess energy for the  Crosstown LRT in a battery-like storage facility. The power would be available to drive the system in the event of an outage. The scheme replaces a  gas-fueled generation plant which had been planned. The inspiration for this came because residents of the Mt. Dennis area objected to the gas plant which would have been located there. The power storage system wold have the capacity to drive the LRT for four hours. The linked story from Urban Toronto notes that most outages are much less than four hours. There is no mention of what might be done if there is a long-term blackout such as those which have spotted the history of Toronto over the decades.  Urban Toronto

This is the second reading of our reminder about the East York Historical Society’s 35th Anniversary Dinner set for Wednesday April 5 2017 at the York Masonic Hall, 1100 Millwood Rd. (Millwood and Overlea Blvd). The last Mayor of the Borough of East York, Michael Prue, will be attending as guest speaker. Also on the bulletin board, Alexa Battler writes in the Centennial College Journalism Department Observer about the Creation Care event last Saturday and Sunday at St. Cuthbert’s Anglican Church  We learn that the name was the creation of Rev. Ian LaFleur, the recently inducted minister. Nice. And Leaside United Church will celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the installation of the pipe organ at the church on April 7, 2017 at 7.30 at LUC at 822 Millwood Road.

Toronto Public Health has published dates and locales where travelers to and from Toronto may have contracted measles. This comes as three cases are confirmed in the City, all related to travel. Details are at the linked site. They involve certain Emirates Airline flights and certain West Jet flights to and from Calgary, Ottawa and Toronto, Toronto and Montreal and Toronto and the Turks and Caicos.

Bombardier, Canada’s no-can-do streetcar maker, has been funneling additional millions of dollars to executives as it hopelessly fumbles Ontario’s LRT train order and grubs for public handouts. It is being slammed for its “sense of entitlement” after awarding $32.6 million US to senior executives even as it laid off thousands of workers and sought government aid. The payout represents an increase of nearly 50 per cent for its top five executives and board chairman, compared with 2015. “At the very least, it demonstrates a rather incredible sense of entitlement, doesn’t it?,” said David Baskin, president at Baskin Wealth Management, a Bay Street investment management firm. CBC

Sign of the Skier Pop-up

The Sign of the Skier seasonal sell-off in pop-up form is back, this time in one of the otherwise vacant shops in the walk-down level of 1560 Bayview Ave. at Belsize Drive.

A fuller account of the release of the second update of the plan for the new Davisville Public School is available at the DPSParents site with a link to a pdf showing detail of the proposed use of the property. It is informative. A community centre (or hub) is shown sitting to the west of the new three storey school. There will be underground parking in keeping with the compact parcel of land.