University Avenue construction falls further behind schedule
Unforeseen complications with working site conditions mean the intersection of University Avenue and Union Street won’t be open until the end of November.
According to the construction update website, the tentative completion date to allow for vehicular traffic on University Avenue was Oct. 31.
Jacques Sauve, Physical Plant Services construction director, said the delay was due to the need to work around gas lines and sewers. “There were additional services that had to be relocated or replaced and repaired,” he said. “They add additional work and add additional design and co-ordination for the project.”
Sauve said the project should be finished at the end of November, before snow starts to fall. Landscaping for the University Avenue project is set to be finished in Spring 2008.
According to the project’s website, an expert in tree growth in urban areas is researching different types of trees that could be planted on the street.
“We’re aiming to have of it a lot of it competed before then, with the exception of some of the sidewalks and some of the final planting and landscaping.”
— Jane Switzer
Former Queen’s employee charged with luring a minor
A former Queen’s technology manager for the Faculty of Education, David Ditchfield, has been charged with attempting to lure a minor with the purpose of soliciting sexual acts.
His trial opened Oct. 22 in the Brockville Superior Court of Justice.
Ditchfield was charged under five sections of the Criminal Code, a client service representative at Brockville Court said.
Ditchfield was a Queen’s employee at the time of his arrest in 2005.
LeRoy Whitehead, associate dean of the Faculty of Education, said Ditchfield is no longer working at the University. He wouldn’t comment on whether Ditchfield resigned or was asked to leave.
“He was not a prof and he didn’t have any direct contact with students,” Whitehead said.
Ditchfield’s lawyer, Michael Woogh, declined to comment. His secretary said his office wouldn’t comment while the trial was still going on.
Court was adjourned on Oct. 26 and will resume Nov. 5.
According to the Kingston Whig-Standard, Ditchfield allegedly had sexually explicit chats with a 13-year-old girl named “Sarah” in an adult chatroom, occasionally masturbating on a webcam during the chats. “Sarah” was a character created by the Child Pornography Unit of the Ontario Provincial Police to find child pornographers.
Det. Const. Scott Johnston played the role of “Sarah” in Ditchfield’s online chats with her.
The Whig reported he pleaded not guilty to the charges, saying he thought “Sarah” was an adult woman playing the role of a teenager.
He was arrested on Jan. 27, 2005 in his home in Seeleys Bay.
— Gloria Er-Chua
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