Minutes of Meeting 6 November 1996

Attendees:

Regional Councillor, Wendy Stewart, reported on the following: Regional budget 1997. Region is waiting for Province to provide additional information re subsidies before Region reviews its funding of its services. Expect to table 1997 estimates on 11 Dec following by a budget open house (to the public) on 8 Jan 97. A ward open house will be scheduled in the near future. OC Transpo strike. Province has cut $10M in transportation funding. Union and OTC are deadlocked re what to do. Region has a strategy to minimize impact on public throughout the holiday season. Regional development strategy (see 2 Oct minutes). Presentation to Council has been delayed to 13 Nov. Recommendations on changing regional/provincial responsibilities re transportation and utility services. News releases are available on this subject. Charging for documentation produced by the Region. On 13 Nov, Region will consider a policy of charging the public for minutes, agendas, and other RMOC documents that are considered in excess of regular communication. Wendy opposes this policy, but encourages people to take advantage of documents available on-line from the Regional Information System. Contributing Christmas card funding to a local charity rather than sending out personal greeting cards. Ottawa-Carleton Police Service (see below). Call Wendy's office for more information.

City Ward 0T8 Councillor, Karin Howard, reported on the following: 1997 budget process. 1997 budget documents are available from Client Service Centre, public libraries, fire stations, community centers, and indoor pools. Public delegations can speak to City Council in Victoria Hall on 12 Dec (9:15am-9pm) and 13 Dec (9:15am-5pm). Budget deliberations ongoing 16-18 Dec in Victoria Hall. Final approval is scheduled for 18 Dec. Ottawa Public Library has launched a new World Wide Web site. Address is http://www.opl.ottawa.on.ca Fire safety video kit (second video) deals with high-rise fire safety. To order, call Liz Drader, Public Education Office, 798-8801. Fundraising for Experimental Farm. Volunteers are needed to help sell tickets for a barn dance to raise fund to replace animals lost in the fire. A Good Ole-Fashioned Barn Dance & Fundraiser is planned for 29 Nov. Call 991-6666 to buy tickets or to volunteer. Call Sylvie Rancourt at 993-7457 for more information. Hunt Club neighborhood plan (see below). Adopt-a-park program (see below). Counting trees in area (see below). For city-related issues, call Karin's office.

Ottawa-Carleton Police Service: Draft Police service budget estimates to be tabled at the Police Services Board meeting Thu 28 Nov at 5pm at the Champlain Room at Regional HQ downtown. Public open house on budget to be held Wed 4 Dec from 4-8pm. Inspector Ken Moodie is in charge of our area. He is available at the South Ottawa Community Police Centre on Cedarwood Dr. (turning north on Walkley halfway between Bank and Heron) from 9am to 4pm (6pm on Thu) 6 days a week. When calling the police, 236-1222, to cut through the answering system, just press zero (0), or press the extension number of the person; for example, Ken Moodie at 236-1222-5841. About 20% of all calls are the result of false home alarms (systems). City false alarm policy being considered by the Board at the 28 Nov meeting. Call Wendy's office for more information.

Hunt Club Neighborhood Plan: A public meeting to finalize the draft Terms of Reference for the Plan has been scheduled for Wed 4 Dec at 7:30pm at the HC Riverside Community Centre on Paul Anka, to be hosted by the HCCO. A steering committee of interested people is being formed - to meet on Mon 25 Nov at 7:30pm. If the Riverside Park Plan project is an indication, people are interested in safety and we could get community interest when the safety audit portion of the Plan is reached. Call Jeff Hunter for more information.

Adopt-a-park program: The City is looking for volunteers to help enhance and maintain city parks. Volunteers would adopt a park for a minimum of 2 years. Tasks would be to clean park twice a year, and promote other activities such as planting, maintenance, inspection.

Counting trees in area: Over the next 4 years Ottawa area Girl Guides are establishing a tree inventory to help City decide where more trees could be planted. Average tree can absorb appr. 60 kg of carbon dioxide per year. 3 trees planted around a house can reduce heating costs by 30-40% a season.

Establishing a community garden: An effort is under way to establish a community garden of some 20 3m x 3m plots (to start). Enables people with no gardens to experience gardening and to grow fresh food. First gardens may be established this Spring. Promotes organic approach to gardening. Non-profit, self-run with no funding. If gardens are interested in Hydro land, Hydro will provide a person to advise where to dig. Generates own composting and enriches soil. Attempt to put gardens within walking distance of people who maintain them. This promotes walking. Gets local people acquainted with each other and promotes security by increasing the walking traffic. Younger people can be interested in the gardens and community can therefore give them something to do and look forward to. Previous community gardens elsewhere have generated enough compost, seeds, and other by- products to sell. Organically grown seeds have a better reputation. Used as a tool to bring people of different cultures together, and to promote self-esteem. Can print information about the gardening effort in several languages and distribute the information to schools where the children can take it back to their parents. Call Warren Munroe for more information.

Status of OBE land at McCarthy & Cahill: The offer is being circulated to other agencies, such as the City first. Then it will be put up for sale. Private developers are interested. Karin will bring OBE representative to next HCCO meeting. Call Karin for more information.

Suggestions about maintaining the Owl Park rink: HCRCC is interested in taking over the rink, if HCCO can't. Install a box and ask for voluntary donations, as did the Rideau Canal. Call Fred McLennan for more information.

Karin Howard wants to form a Ward Council: Will help people to network together. May meet every 6 months. Call Karin for more information.

Protecting disappearing woodlands and our green spaces: Land owned by Canderel at 1145 Hunt Club Rd. contains 90% of a small natural woodland around the new South Keys Mall. City owns remaining 10%. As specified in the Planning Act, South Keys Mall gave the City 2% (about 2 acres) of land at their southern boundary beside the Canderel land in lieu. Normally the City would create a parkland from this section in order to balance the effect of large development. The Mall is now buying back this land from the City, in effect removing the option of having parkland from the people living and using the area. Canderel has applied to split its land into two in order to sell the northern half to South Keys. South Keys proposes to cut down the wooded area and build the 12-theatre complex and parking lot. Phase IV (the theatres) site plan has been submitted. A public meeting is being arranged by Diane Deans at 7:30pm, Dunlop School, in the Library, 1310 Pebble Rd., Thu 5 Dec. City is to review the site plan in Feb. Construction could start in the Spring. South Keys has already cut down a large swath of regrown woodland in order to build the mall. Removing existing woodland lowers the water table, promotes dryness and dust in summer, and increases water runoff during rainy periods. In other words, without woodland (which takes 50-100 years to regrow) the water falling during rainy periods is not retained to humidify and cool drier periods. Call Peter Vasdi for more information.

Other items: Robin Sobrino is leaving the community and going out west. Approved (motioned, seconded, and passed) to give the HCRCC $100 for Hallowe'en. Approved (motioned, seconded, and passed) to try and change the monthly HCCO meeting day from Wed to any other day, preferrably Mon or Tue. Approved (motioned, seconded, and voted) to suggest that Wendy Stewart's Christmas Card funding be donated to help the SOGRAT telephone crisis line. Ann Brandel to call Wendy and pass on suggestion. Proposed cut of 8% funding to HCRCC. Karin will attend meeting of HCRCC board on 26 Nov. Call Fred McLennan for more information.

Changes to HCCO Board of Directors: Approved (motioned, seconded, and passed) to extend terms of current Board of Directors (for 1995-96) to end of this year (31 Jul 97), and to put notice into community paper, The News, to inform members not attending that they can request a meeting to change this Board as per the by-law. Approved (motioned, seconded, and passed) that Alan Asselstine step down as Vice-President and assume the role of Treasurer from Bill Royds. Call Fred McLennan for more information.

Selection of auditor for HCCO: Approved (motioned, seconded, and passed) to retain current auditor for year ending 31 Jul 97. May look at accepting the services of a volunteer auditor for the year following. Call Alan Asselstine for more information.

Next HCCO meeting to be held Wed 4 Dec at 7:30 p.m. at the Hunt Club Riverside Community Centre at the corner of Paul Anka and McCarthy. Anyone is welcome. Call Fred McLennan for more information.

Recent updates: The City is proposing to increase the speed limit along Hunt Club Road to 80 km/hr. Wendy (the Region) feels that this increase should be presented to the public before it is implemented.