My former cane business, Cane & Able, was operated from the hallway of my home on Main Street amid a pleasant residential neighbourhood with tree lined streets.
The neighbours though friendly and courteous, were not overly involved in one and other’s lives. But if ever help was needed they were there, if necessary. That is why it came as such a shock one day to have the city bylaw officer call to say a neighbour had complained about my business.
Prior to opening the business, I had checked the zoning bylaws with the city, the Real Estate Board, my then alderman, Mike Farnan, and the dental office opposite, also with my lawyers.
It was determined I best fit the category under medical services zoning bylaw.
No infractions occurred and for everything ran smoothly. With only one or two appointments a day designed to fit my physical capacity, a dead-end street beside the house for clients to park, it was of no interference to the neighbours.
The complaint was “that with a flourishing business and number of clients my business would decrease the value of nearby residential homes, my sign should be removed.”
The officer wanted to check to see what type of business I was operating and how many actual clients came. He combed though my records which showed at the very most ten per week, and the average was less, some weeks only one or two. I explained the purpose of the business was to help people be equipped and fitted with assistive devices, to counsel them to the proper use in a positive way.
Although one of a kind in Canada, it was determined it could fit the medical services category.
My visitors were less per week than the social visitors to the neighbours (who I suspected had laid the complaint, but no names were given.)
The bylaw officer left telling me he would follow up after checking everything, he would call the complainants and get back to me. A few days later he called about my sign.
“You are breaking the sign bylaw, you may not have a sign displayed on the property.”
My heart sank. Professionally made by Florence signs, the sign had been discretely placed on the wall of our large, pillared verandah by the door. It did not even specify the company name but stated simply: Jill Summerhayes. Cane consultant. Hours by appointment. 623-4518.
He continued “the bylaw states a sign cannot be higher than six feet off the ground, it must be clearly visible, several feet away from the house, and free standing. So please comply.”
What a relief, it made me laugh, having gone from fearing after all my work to get established, I might be asked to close, now instead the sign had to overtly displayed. It had to be free standing hanging between two posts, swinging freely off the ground with the name of the company Cane & Able clearly displayed.
It had backfired on those who had reported the complaint. I asked the officer if he would please tell the neighbours why this had happened and explain sign bylaws did not always seem to make sense.
Within a few days my sign was replaced, hanging as required including the company name, Cane & Able, a newly designed logo and an actual cane secured to the board, very elegant and classy.
A few weeks after that Bill Bramah called me. Bill who worked for Global Television for several years, was an older retired news reporter spanning from the late 1970s and 1980s to the early 1990s. He told lots of folksy-type stories about places all over Ontario. Bill's show was called Bramah's Ontario.
Bill, wife Jenny and cameraman Terry Culbert would travel the province looking for neat yarns that usually appeared on the noon and the six o’ clock news.
On their travels they had noted the new sign and phoned me.
Today Susan Hay has replaced Bill with her inspiring stories titled “Making a difference.”
Bill wanted to interview me about the business and if it seemed a good fit, he would bring out a TV crew to film a segment. After an extensive interview a few weeks later the film crew arrived.
We had a few amusing moments when cameraman Terry accidentally broke the blown glass bottle cane filled with sherry, the hallway (my sales area) reeked of booze. Once Bill heard about the recent sign complaints he laughed and threatened to comment, “Imagine “he said, “if they had shut down a wonderful one-of-a-kind service, glad they didn’t.” So was I.
A few days after the piece aired a woman without an appointment appeared at the door, pushing her way in she declared “I’ve come to see how we can bring a bus load out to your premises to see your workshop.”
What a joke, when the section showing how I sized and cut canes was included, the area of my workbench was carefully filmed to avoid showing the laundry area of the cluttered unfinished basement.
When I told her it was not practical as it was a small basement area, she looked at me in disbelief. I invited her downstairs to see for herself. She had imagined a large factory, not just a workbench in a small section. Of course, there was no follow up bus trip scheduled.
The entire five hours of interviewing and filming was edited to a packed two minutes. It received wide coverage and led to a regular monthly magazine episode with CKVR. TV station in Barrie, plus a few other TV interviews, more media coverage and customers from far and wide.
It did make me question the validity of strict by-laws but as they need to apply to a wide variety of different situations across the entire municipality, there is little room for flexibility.
Sometimes a square peg does not fit a round hole and needs to be modified.
This episode certainly contributed to put my business on the map. The sign remained for more than a decade and was only taken down on my retirement in 2003 when the business was closed. Indeed, to me instead of a sign of the times it was “A time of the signs.”
