Address signs at Pembroke housing complex causing confusion

PEMBROKE, ONT. -

Residents and neighbours at a Renfrew County Housing complex in Pembroke are getting fed up with the address signage - or lack thereof.

A lifelong Pembroke resident who lives across the street from the housing complex on Reynolds Avenue and says it’s been four years of complaining and redirecting drivers.

“People have driven by slowly and then I knew they were looking for an address,” says Sandra Lampkie. “At night time you can’t see it because the lights from the cars don’t shine onto it and in the day time people are really confused on where to go.”

She says the poor signage is now causing dangerous situations within the complex.

“There was a young lad in there who had gotten stung by a bee apparently and he was going into shock, and they couldn’t find the address. So a bunch of children from in there came running out on the street flagging the ambulance down to tell them where to go.”

Lampkie adds another ambulance came by Thursday.

“Seeing the ambulance yesterday lost, and they did take a patient from in there yesterday, so I was annoyed.”

The experience is even worse for the residents who live inside the complex, like Marshall Laverdure, who has been in his unit for ten years.

“Lots of delivery people, they ask me which number is what and even I don’t know the order of the numbers here in this complex,” says the long time resident. “It is really hard. You have to go door to door really to figure out where they are.”

The Renfrew County Housing Corporation did not respond to a request for comment on the issue. Lampkie says over the years she has filed the complaint with multiple managers, and now gone through city councillors to have the complaint heard.

“The sign should be in front of the post and pointing towards the back of where the units are,” says Lampkie, calling for a simple solution.

Residents have put up with the inconvenience, but worry if an emergency were to occur.

“It would be really hard to know which unit is what and people are working so maybe they’re not responding because they’re not there or they can’t respond,” says Laverdure. “So I can see a danger there.”