‘Music of the Night’: Markham, Ont. residents kept awake by faulty park windmill

Globalnews.ca
March 10, 2023
Mark Carcasole

For weeks, maybe even months depending on who you talk to, a normally-quiet residential neighbourhood in Markham, Ont., has been plagued by what some locals jokingly call “the music of the night.”

Residents in the homes adjacent to Wismer Park in the area of Mingay and Bur Oak avenues have had their quiet leisure walks, bike rides and most importantly, rest interrupted by a metallic screeching that wouldn’t sound out of place in a horror movie.

They claim it’s only become louder over time.

The problem can be traced to a large metal windmill, installed some time ago to help move the water in the pond surrounding it. It usually does so silently, but lately when the wind picks up, the windmill lets out a banshee-like shriek.

Jonathan and Annie Liu live across the street and say they’ve lost plenty of sleep to the noisy neighbourhood fixture.

As they stood on their doorstep discussing their plight with Global News, they were interrupted by a long groan that coincided with a pickup in the wind.

“You see?” asked Jonathan, gesturing toward the windmill.

“This is always like this. And if it’s a strong wind in the night, it just sounds like that.”

The Lius and their neighbours all say they’ve contacted the City of Markham about the issue but have not seen, or heard, any relief.

“They got back to us, they said they’re going to put in a work order,” said Winnie Wong.

“But it’s been a long time already.”

Local city councillor Karen Rea says she had heard of the issue, but didn’t realize just how loud the windmill was until Global News sent her a video of it.

Apologizing to local residents, she says city crews have ordered the part necessary to fix the windmill but that it is stuck on back order.

Shortly after Rea was informed of the situation Thursday afternoon, she requested city workers to take care of the situation with a temporary fix.

“City staff are going to come out today and try and stop it from revolving around. So that should take away the noise issue.”

The blades have now been visibly bound with orange rope, stopping them from moving and hopefully muting the screeching until a permanent fix can be implemented.