GACA Board Meeting – October 15, 2019

Published on by glebeannex

Minutes, Glebe Annex Community Association Executive Meeting – Tuesday, October 15th, 7:00 p.m.
Location: Glebe Community Centre, 175 Third Ave, Meeting Room

Present:

  • Carrie Bolton
  • David Perkins
  • Gabrielle Dallaporta
  • Joanne Benoit
  • Maja Rakocevic
  • Sue Stefko
  • Jonathan McLeod (Assistant, Office of Shawn Menard, City Councillor, Capital Ward)

1. Call to Order

  • The meeting was called to order at 7:05 p.m.

2. Approval of Agenda

  • A motion was made by Carrie to approve the agenda with an amendment to add the item of the Chamberlain Study, seconded by Maja and carried.

3. Councillor’s Office Update (Jon)

3.1

  • Regarding 289 Carling, the Councillor received GACA’s letter providing feedback on the John Howard Society’s site plan. The Councillor’s office agrees with all of GACA’s suggestions.

3.2

  • Next Tuesday, October 22nd, there will be a budget consultation for Ottawa South Wards. This includes Capital Ward (which actually extends to Walkley Road) as well as River, Alta Vista and Gloucester-South Nepean Wards. The meeting is at 6 p.m. at the Jim Durrell Centre. On Tuesday, November 5th the five urban wards will have a budget meeting at City Hall at 6 p.m.

3.3

  • There will be a public consultation on Lansdowne on October 28th at the Aberdeen Pavilion. This is to talk about the vision going forward, and the City and OSEG roles regarding programming.

3.4

  • On Thursday, October 17th there will be a public consultation on the renewal of Bank Street, south of Riverside Drive to Ledbury Avenue. The Meeting is at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.

3.5

  • Serene is leaving her assistant position in the Councillor’s office (she was the mat replacement for Lina) – there is now a job opening in our city councillor’s office. If anyone knows of someone who may be interested in this position, the job description has been posted on twitter.

4. Chamberlain Avenue, Catherine Street and Isabella Study (Carrie)

  • The working group will meet for the last time on October 28th. They plan to finalize the changes they would like to propose, particularly changes on Chamberlain to Raymond, Isabella Street, Catherine and Bank at Metcalfe and O’Connor.
  • Any construction would be required to wait until the Bronson off-ramp is completed.

5. Glebe Annex Traffic Issues (Gabrielle)

  • Some Clemow residents have made complaints about speeding and parking on their street. In addition, flex stakes were installed as a new traffic calming measure on both Powell and Cambridge, which are also of concern to some residents.
  • GACA is asking for Councillor Menard’s office support for additional traffic calming measures. There is an increase in both concern and traffic.
  • Jon mentioned there are two ways to request these, through the ward budget (which is more limited), or through the City’s program that deals with permanent traffic calming measures. The city program is for all wards of the City of Ottawa.
  • The question was raised as to how the city conducts traffic studies. It was commented that it appears that the City does not fully account for pedestrians. How and when does the city conduct these studies? Jon said studies are undertaken where there are good reasons presented to request one.
  • Questions were raised as to: what is the best way in determining where traffic trouble spots are, and are studies helpful? Sue mentioned that the last study for our area is from 2006. Should we push for a new study? What are the bests measures?
  • Jon will look into traffic studies. He noted that the most effective traffic calming measures are speed bumps and curb planters/bulb-outs.
  • There are speeding concerns in the Glebe Annex, as the area is often used for drivers to short cut through to Carling, Bronson and Booth.

6. Federal Candidates Debate (Gabrielle)

  • The Federal Candidates’ debate held on September 25th was a huge success, with 400 seated attendees, 150 standing, and 300 turned away. A thank you was made to Gabrielle who played a role in getting Rogers to live stream the event. They had a huge online audience, and some even had trouble getting access due to such high demand.
  • A bigger location venue will be required for the next debate.
  • It was generally felt that that Adrian Harewood of the CBC did a great job moderating. One issue raised was that Adrian did not take many questions provided by the Community Associations or the public. Most of the questions were his own. This may have misled the public, who thought that they could ask questions, and may have been unfair at times to the candidates, as the format of allowing each candidate to answer each question was not followed. However, it was an engaging debate, and the feedback was mostly very positive.
  • There will be a debate debrief on October 22nd to discuss what went well and what did not and what could be changed for next time.

7. GACA’s AGM (Sue)

  • We could use the preschool room for next year’s AGM at the Glebe Community Centre, it is a better size for the AGM than the large auditorium.
  • There have been some comments made that more people would go to the AGM if the location was closer to our neighbourhood. We have the option of having it at the Kings’ Daughters and Sons senior apartments, just south of Carling. The rental cost would be $50.00. It is a good size room and is the same one where the Lakelander meeting regarding the John Howard Society’s build at 289 Carling was held.
  • Sue made a motion to move the AGM to the Kings’ Daughters and Sons, seconded by Carrie, and carried.
  • Sue will check for the availability of Wednesday, May 13th, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. for the next GACA AGM.

8. Fundraising/Membership (Joanne)

  • The suggestion of running a lottery, e.g. a 50/50 was made.
  • Questions raised as to what would we spend the money on? More events? We do have money in budget, is this something we wish to do?
  • The idea of selling raffle tickets instead of free prizes at our events was raised, but was opposed by some board members. We have lower income people in our area, and some felt that it is nice to have a completely free event, including food and a chance to win a prize. We do have a lot of people who sign up for our newsletter who are not members, that is available to everyone.
  • If we had a larger reserve of money, could we do a ‘give what you can’ membership fee? Some would be generous, it is hoped.
  • Is it possible to get more corporate memberships?
  • Joanne will investigate the rules regarding a 50/50 or lottery with a prize; maybe this is something that could be combined with our membership drive and our event(s).

9. Commemorative Park Naming – Change name of Dalhousie Park to Abbas (Joanne)

  • The idea about whether or not to rename the park in honour of the Abbas family was discussed. Abbas has given so much to our neighbourhood – they played a role in establishing Dalhousie South Park, provide most of the food for our events, and give food to their customers at times. They have helped families in the community in need, and still allow their customers to run tabs. This store was opened by Roddy and Mike’s parents in the 1960s.
  • Everyone agreed that the Abbas family deserves recognition, and that the brothers contribute much to the community. Concern was raised about the Hogans’ store owner and clients feeling slighted if we went forward with the commemorative park naming of Abbas. Hogan’s is the oldest corner store in the area, and possibly in Ottawa, and they are also committed to the neighbourhood.
  • The name Abbas needs to be vetted by the City for duplication to ensure that it meets 911 requirements. It could not, for example, be a similar name to another city park as this could cause confusion if an emergency response is required. In fact, the current name, Dalhousie South Park could cause confusion, seeing that Dalhousie Street is in the Market. If the name is acceptable, then the application process can commence. The application would require the support of our city councillor.
  • Joanne will investigate the application process, and if Abbas does qualify for consideration, then it could be further discussed as to whether GACA or individuals (the general community) will make the application.

10. Adjournment

  • The motion to adjourn the meeting was made by Carrie and second by Maja. The meeting adjourned at 8:35 p.m.

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