Property Management Staff Changes

Victoria Kohlhagen has left to have a baby. Natasha Guyatt has joined, after spending 4 years managing a large rent roll elsewhere in Sydney.

Property Management is Back on Line

After working through the Easter weekend, our expert at Maxcom Technology managed fully to recover Nicole's computer from the SMART Hard Disk Drive virus she picked up on 4 April (see the last blog). Not only that, but all the emails sent to her since 4 April have been backed up on our server and are now available to her. There are 100 emails, which she now has to handle, please give her a bit of slack!

For information, I talked with our main IT group, they say that the SMART virus is rampant, there is currently no anti-virus software that can protect you from it if you happen to access an infected web site. They say that in half the cases they have handled they have had to reformat the disk with loss of anything that wasn't backed up! So beware, internet shoppers!

The Hidden Cost of Internet Shopping

Our property officer Nicole must, as part of her duties, spend a lot of time on the internet searching for new or alternative products or services. Recently her computer was infected by the SMART Hard Disk Drive virus, and our IT specialist has spent several days trying to recover the computer and the information on it.

This virus has been around for several years, and apparently the most common method of being infected is by browsing infected internet sites. Clicking on links offering to ‘speed up your disk drive’ or similar links immediately loads the virus, but apparently in some cases these viruses are downloaded simply by visiting the perfectly normal and innocent but infected web site. And this virus totally shuts down your computer and won't let you even start using it.

Perhaps Myers and David Jones should stress this hidden cost of internet shopping!

Meanwhile Nicole will probably not be able to access any of her emails before the weekend. Our apologies if you were waiting for a response. Please phone the office, 9479 8444, or email me, peter.hewitt@raywhite.com, if it’s urgent.

Also note the office will be closed over the Easter break, call me (0417 215 774) if you need assistance over this period. Happy Easter to you all.

Doug in the Top Salesperson List again!

For the second year running, Douglas Macarthur's annual sales performance earned him a place in the Ray White Corporate Premier Members list.

Rail Freight Corridor and the BCCT AGM

At the BCCT AGM, Scott Lyall of Transport for NSW gave an excellent presentation on the current state of planning for the third rail coming through Cheltenham and Beecroft. The rail is needed to allow north-bound passenger trains to pass slow moving freight trains struggling up the steep track there. The new rail will cut into existing railway land west of the present rail, including the children's play park by the bus stops, and the commuter car park. The car park will be relocated north of Chapman Avenue, maintaining the same number of car park spaces.

Beecroft Road Bridge Closed over Easter

The following has been received from the M2 Project:

All lanes on Beecroft Road Bridge will be closed between 4am Saturday, 7 April and 12pm Monday, 9 April 2012 while essential concreting work is completed. The westbound off ramp and citybound on ramp will remain open to motorists throughout this period. Motorists will not be able to turn left onto Beecroft Road from Kandy Avenue during this period. At 12pm on Monday, 9 April 2012 all lanes will reopen to motorists and a 40km/hour speed limit may be in place until 5am Tuesday, 10 April 2012.

Delays are expected so please plan your journey, allow extra travel time and consider using alternate routes via Pennant Hills Road and Carlingford Road. Please check www.livetraffic.com or call 131 701 for traffic updates.

Parking in the Village

Someone asked about overall parking availability in the village. There are a total of some 243 spaces in the village, including street parking. Of these, 97 spaces are The Module (48 at the rear over Franklins, and 49 in the main area). There are 65 spaces in the Arcade parking areas, 27 near the firestation, 8 in front of R&H, 14 in front of 5 Wongalla, and about 32 on Wongalla Rd and Hannah St. There are also a number of private spaces behind many of the shops.
The key factor then is that The Module car park is nearly half of the available off-street public parking. But people need to remember that it is not "public", it is for use of staff and customers of shops and offices in The Module.
But it is clear that there is lots of parking available, so we should be encouraging the friendly village atmosphere of the precinct, not forcing people away by only letting them park for the "authorised" two hours. Our motto should be "Come and Browse".

Parking in the Module

Further to my blog of 10 Feb, I have continued to monitor the parking spaces behind the Module, and have so far never counted less than 16 empty spaces. The average over the whole month, between 9:10 am and 4:40pm, has been 33 spaces.
Despite this, someone has been complaining to strata management, and letters are being put in windscreens for people who stay beyond the 2 hour official parking time. This seems a pity, since it compels customers to come, do their planned business, and leave, instead of dalying, enjoying a coffee or a meal or a massage, and roaming the shops. Very short sighted by those who are making the fuss.

Paper Wasps

We had a complaint of a wasp nest in the eaves of a property.

We sent our specialist around, he found and destroyed a total of sixteen active nests. Here he is at work.

Be Gone Foul Wasps!

Interest Rates on hold again

Last month the forecasters were wrong, official rates stayed fixed. This time the forecasters were right, official rates stayed fixed. Will be interesting to see how the banks respond this time.