Weekly newsletter: October 1, 2024
Hello!
Welcome to the first week of October. Today is apparently international coffee day.
Last Friday, I had the pleasure of hosting a Master of Journalism class from Carleton University at City Hall, along with councillors Gower, King, and Kitts (all fellow Carleton J-school grads). We had a great discussion about the intersection of journalism and politics, and how we got to where we were. What fun!
Also, on Saturday morning, I posted some rolling road closures later that day, related to the National Peace Officers’ Memorial Run on social media. You’d think having written the post, I would not have found myself stuck on the roads with the rolling closures a few hours later…
Fenced dog parks
Exploring different options to meet demand.
There continues to be considerable interest in fenced dog parks for our community’s dogs and their humans to let loose in a safe space. Those spaces also benefit residents who may not wish to interact with dogs.
Over in Barrhaven West, city staff and Councillor Hill have opened public engagement↗ for a proposed fenced-in dog park near the car dealerships by Costco, tentatively named the Gregory Casey dog park. The public engagement survey closes Thanksgiving Monday, 14 October.
Gregory Casey was the son of Terry and Gerald Casey, who died in 2008 at the age of 29 after a battle with cancer. The City purchased the land in 2015 from the Caseys for a stormwater management facility, which was named in Gregory’s memory at Terry and Gerald’s request.
Here in Barrhaven East, the main challenge is a lack of available land or new development, meaning any dog park would be an addition or retrofit to a portion of an existing park. Most of the community’s parks are well-established and well-used.
That being said, parks built since the late-1990s have dry storm ponds built in as part of stormwater management, which is required in new subdivisions. Parks with dry storm ponds include Chapman Mills Park, Rodeo Park, and Watershield Park.
I have been eyeing dry storm ponds for a variety of light uses that don’t compromise their primary function as flooding mitigation, and I believe a good use for at least one or two of them would be fenced dog parks.
I have a meeting scheduled with staff later today to discuss what is possible.
Aside from that, there may be one or two upcoming developments in the South Merivale Business Park I can take advantage of, through development parkland dedications.
Hopefully, I will have something positive to share in the coming weeks!
Autumn tree planting
The autumn tree planting programme is now underway, with 57 trees scheduled to be planted across Barrhaven East over the next six weeks.
Panda Park will receive 17 trees, while Daybreak Park will receive four. Three additional streetscape trees will also be planted.
The remaining 33 trees are trees-in-trust, planted by the City free of charge in the right-of-way in a residential front or side yard. The resident pledges to maintain the tree for the first three years of its life.
Interested residents may learn more about the trees-in-trust program or request a tree for the spring 2025 program here↗.
Residents expecting a tree-in-trust this planting season will have a tree dropped off at its planting location up to three days before it is planted. Crews planting the tree will remove utility locate flags when the planting has been completed.
In addition to season planting, regular maintenance, inspection, and inventory will continue to be done by urban forestry crews.
O-Train Line 1
To facilitate software integration and connection works with the Stage 2 LRT extension to Orleans, all rail service will be suspended and replaced with R1 bus service all day Saturday 5 October.
Rail service resumes the morning of Sunday 6 October.
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Please take some time to check out some community events, updates from your library, and other information below!
Thanks, as always, for reading.
-Wilson