Nominations for Outstanding Women

Our city councillor has passed this message on to us:

A new bilingual website will be launched on International Women’s Day, 2020 and we want you to be part of this historical and important initiative by nominating outstanding women from your ward!

This unique website will acknowledge and document with worldwide reach, local women whose achievements and contributions have enriched the quality of life for Ottawa’s citizens. It will also act as a beacon that will inspire young women; reflect Ottawa’s rich diversity; encourage city commemorations of women; and, promote local initiatives and organizations that recognize the positive value and impact of these women to our city, to our nation and/or globally.

Femmes remarquables Ottawa Distinguished Women is a collaborative volunteer initiative currently comprised of over 30 community leaders from various cultural communities and backgrounds with a shared passion for creating a lasting legacy and conduit for recognizing the outstanding contributions and professional achievements of exceptional women in Ottawa.

Attached is a Nomination Form along with an information sheet related to Eligibility and Criteria. Please feel free to nominate as many outstanding women that you feel deserve recognition.
Continue reading “Nominations for Outstanding Women” →

Pontiac Depaving Slide Show by Envirocentre

Envirocentre (https://www.envirocentre.ca/) has put together this slide show video about the Pontiac Street depaving day, complementing our photos of the Pontiac Park Expansion.

pontiac_street_depave_video.mp4

A timeline of the park expansion is at https://champlainpark.org/park/pontiac-depaving-and-park-expansion/

BudgetSpeak 2020 – November 5

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/budgetspeak-2020-parlonsbudget-2020-tickets-76918506323

Join Councillors Leiper, McKenney, Menard, King and Fleury to share your perspectives on the 2020 Municipal Budget.

There will be three key themes to our discussion this year: Mobility, Affordable Housing and Social Infrastructure. In the context of Ottawa becoming a City of 1 million people, how we get around, what services we use and where we live is more critical than ever. BudgetSpeak is your opportunity to voice to your City Councillors what they should have at the forefront of their minds when they vote on the 2020 Municipal Budget.

Joignez-vous aux conseillers Leiper, McKenney, Menard, King et Fleury pour partager vos points de vue sur le budget municipal 2020

Il y aura trois thèmes principaux dans les discussions cette année: la mobilité, le logement abordable et l’infrastructure sociale. Maintenant qu’Ottawa est une ville d’un million d’habitants, comment nous nous déplaçons, les services nous utilisons et où nous vivons est plus critique que jamais. ParlonsBudget vous donne l’occasion d’exprimer aux conseillers ce qu’ils devraient avoir en tête lorsqu’ils votent sur le budget municipal 2020.

Wildlife Series: Fish Tales – November 27

The next talk in the City of Ottawa Wildlife Speaker Series is:

Fish Tales: An Exploration of Ottawa’s Underwater World

Wednesday, November 27, 2019
7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Ben Franklin Place
101 Centrepointe Drive
Ottawa, ON
Speaker: Dr. Steven Cooke, Carleton University
Times: 7 p.m. Aquatic Expo 8 p.m. Opening Remarks and Presentation
Admission: Donation of a non-perishable food item for the Ottawa Food Bank. As space is limited, admission is on a first come, first served basis.

https://ottawa.ca/en/living-ottawa/environment/wildlife/wildlife-speaker-series
https://ottawa.ca/fr/vivre-ottawa/environnement/faune/serie-de-conferences-sur-la-faune

Landsdowne Park Future Forum – October 28

Lansdowne public forum invitation Oct 28 2019.pdf
Continue reading “Landsdowne Park Future Forum – October 28” →

1451 Wellington Condo Construction Starts

The condominium at the corner of Island Park Drive and Wellington/Richmond Road will finally be starting construction, after many months of full page advertisements in the Ottawa Citizen. The developer’s web site has some information about their project: https://mizrahidevelopments.ca/featured-projects/1451-wellington/

Here is a letter from our city councillor’s assistant about the project, and the impact it will have on the neighbourhood.

From: Mitchell, Fiona <Fiona.Mitchell@ottawa.ca>
Sent: Monday, October 21, 2019, 04:46:04 p.m. GMT-4
Subject: Mizrahi Construction

Hello everyone!

I know it’s been a while since we lasted checked in with you about this, but Mizrahi is now in a position to move ahead with the construction of their approved project, and work will be beginning immediately.

We are still in the process of organizing a pre-construction meeting with the wider community, which will give residents a head’s up about the work and what to expect moving forward. I am waiting for Mizrahi to provide me with date options that work for them.

While the pre-construction meeting is still be organized, work will begin on the site (this is not my preferred option but unfortunately this is what has occurred due to scheduling issues). Please review below the first schedule:
Continue reading “1451 Wellington Condo Construction Starts” →

Keyworth Avenue Sewer Work

In local news – The Keyworth Avenue Sewer is being Rehabilitated.

The city’s contractor has been installing a temporary sewer pipe from the corner of Clearview and Keyworth right over the Carleton Avenue bridge and onto Scott Street. Once the sewer under Keyworth has been bypassed, they’ll be relining it to make it last longer (delaying the need to dig it up and replace it).

Of course, during this work Keyworth will be even more impassible than usual (lots of house construction already clogs up the south end). There was even a bus detour to completely avoid the street on Thursday due to a gas leak. Though they did bury most of the temporary pipe, so Keyworth should be mostly back to normal during the relining operation.

Temporary sewer pipe crosses Carleton Avenue bridge and goes down south side of Amanda Avenue.

Continue reading →

New Patricia Avenue Sidewalk

In local news – there’s a new sidewalk on Patricia Avenue!

The former asphalt one has been replaced with a new concrete sidewalk. It has fewer cracks than the old one, a slip reduction rubber pad at the corner, and the sideways tilt is about half of the previous one (formerly it had driveway ramps sloping up completely in the half of the sidewalk next to the street).

The more noticeable change is that the corner of Patricia and Amanda is narrower, just the width of the road. Formerly it was the junction with Island Park Drive and part of the extra wide curve was the former road going up the hill to Island Park.

The $120,000 budget was funded by the city of Ottawa and the Federal government. And it seems like they’re finished as of October 18th 2019, except for a bit of landscaping repair to the adjacent front lawns.

New Patricia Avenue sidewalk at the corner with Sunnymede. Note the slip reduction rubber pad built into the curve, the place where slips are more likely.

Continue reading →

Pontiac De-paving Day Photo Review

Community Effort to Remove Pavement on Pontiac Street and Reclaim Paradise!!

Last Saturday, a family-friendly event was led by Councillor Jeff Leiper to de-pave one block of Pontiac Street and to re-connect the green space of Champlain Park directly to NCC lands accessing the Ottawa river.

The Councillor received sponsorship from the City with funds from cash-in-lieu of parkland money and a small grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation. Energetic community volunteers showed up to dig up sections of pavement and transfer them to City dumpsters. The volunteers were organized by Enviro Centre and Champlain Park Community Association, with coffee from Bridgehead and bagels from the Ottawa Bagel Shop.

In the near future, the City workers will finish digging the gravel base, adding soil, and seeding the area. The NCC will remove the fence and gravel on their side. Volunteers plan to landscape the NCC land with native species of ground cover, shrubs and trees. As Joni Mitchell sang in her song “Big Yellow Taxi”, “you don’t know what you’ve got, ’till it’s gone”. It’s not often a parking lot gets turned into parkland!

Enviro Centre team with Champlain Park Community Association volunteer, Debra Huron, set up coffee (Bridgehead) and bagels (Ottawa Bagel Shop) as well as supplying tools and safety gear for volunteers. Photo by John Arnason.

Continue reading →

Depaving Commences

Here’s a quick photo essay of the core work cycle at the depaving ceremony this morning. There were other things happening too, like a kids amusement spot with pumpkins and paint (they helped out near the end, moving small road fragments), an outfitting area and sponsored snacks. Hopefully we’ll have time to write a longer story later and give credit to the people and groups who helped with the depaving event.