Did you know that power outages are a major nuisance and have a disruptive effect on the lives of people here at Cornwall Square when such an event happens. Last Thursday at 12:30pm during lunch hour. Wham! Power failure. Hello darkness, Instant store activity interrupter, instant black out inside all the stores and the FOOD HALL restaurants. We are lucky to have a skylight running the full length of the mall and in the middle of the FOOD HALL to provide daylight to the inside of the building common areas.
Here are some of the consequences of the power outage: 1- Instant shutdown of the elevators both passenger and freight. 2- Instant shutdown of the escalators between floors and one hopes that nobody was caught off guard going up but especially going down. 3- semi darkness in the public washrooms (surprise!) and total darkness in the handicap and family washrooms (ouch!). 4- Total darkness in all of the store washrooms, 5- total darkness in the sales areas of the in-line stores that forces the stores to close temporarily until power returns. 6- Thanks to our emergency generator, the back hallways and the Mall Administration Office lighting were still functioning. 7- All computers come to a screeching halt and shift over to battery power. 8- Any computers connected to a server are S.O.L. as the server shuts down. 9- All mall automatic doors stop working as they are power driven. 10- Parking garage lighting shuts down with only daylight to provide lighting but none in the stairwells. All these consequences impact the lives of customers and store personnel alike and drive one to distraction with the level of inconvenience to one’s daily routine.
The average power outage has been 20 minutes each time over the past 4 years and this time was no exception other than Cornwall Electric’s emergency line had the following message “We are sorry about the power failure, but our crews are out repairing the problem. Power should be restored by 2:30pm, almost 2 hours.” Not the case last Thursday and we all could get back to our routine within 20 minutes. Some computers and servers took a little longer.
The cause of the outage turns out to be a misguided and now very fried squirrel. What a pain.
Did you know that we at Cornwall Square have been responding to an increased interest from the retail community in locating stores in Cornwall Square. Stay tuned for some fresh announcements on new tenancies as well as other changes coming to Cornwall Square.
You need to know that this Saturday, September 21 is the annual Garlic Festival in Lamoureux Park. A shout out to that festival. Stop by, take in the activities, sample some goodies and breathe on a friend. Before leaving the festival, you may want to stop by the breath mint booth and try their samples.
“Shop Cornwall, shop indoors, shop The Square.”
