Updates on stories we’ve been watching over the past few weeks…
GOULBOURN REC CENTRE POOL
The GRC pool re-opened in June after extensive repairs to fix structural deficiencies. We were wondering about the status of potential legal action by the City to recoup the repair costs. Here’s a response, from an email attributed to City Solicitor Rick O’Connor:
“In accordance with the request made by the Ward Councillor that Legal Services report back to the Finance and Economic Development Committee on potential legal action involving the remediation of the Goulbourn Recreation Complex, the City Clerk and Solicitor has engaged an external legal review and it is anticipated that the results of that review will be presented to the Committee as part of the semi-annual Comprehensive Legal Services Report for the June 2015-December 2015 period, in early 2016.”
CARP RIVER RESTORATION
A company has been selected for the Carp River Restoration Plan work, and it’s expected to begin next month, but the Kanata West Owners Group (KWOG) has yet to publicly release the name of the company who won the estimated $17.9-million contract.
That amount is quite a bit higher than the $14.8-million estimate the City of Ottawa provided to us last August. The City will pick up about a third of the cost, with KWOG picking up the rest of the tab.
Preliminary construction work has already begun and there is some urgency to get the work going so that there’s minimal disturbance to wildlife such as the Blanding’s Turtles that live in the area.
COMMUNITY SAFETY
There’s a new community police officer on duty in Stittsville. Constable Phong Le is taking over from Constable Lori Fahey. Fahey will be moving into into a professional development role, training new recruits for Ottawa Police.
Councillor Shad Qadri addressed community concerns about vandalism at a meeting of the Southwest Stittsville Community Association on Wednesday night.
He gave an overview of City and police initiatives in place to curb vandalism and small crime, and reminded residents to report concerns to the police, bylaw (3-1-1), or his office, rather than social media.
“Unless you email concerns directly to the councillor or police, no-one is monitoring social media,” he said.
He also cautioned residents from jumping to conclusions about who may be responsible for vandalism.
“The one thing I didn’t do (as a store owner) was to treat teenagers any differently than anyone else,” he said. “They deserve respect. If you as a community do that you may not see the issues we have today.”
HUNTMAR & MAPLE GROVE INTERSECTION
People in Fairwinds are still waiting for the results of a City traffic study on the safety of the new traffic lights. Residents will meet with Councillor Qadri later this month to discuss this and other traffic safety concerns.
STITTSVILLE VILLAGE ASSOCIATION
The Stittsville Village Association will hold an Annual General Meeting on November 26 at the NLP building (8B Sweetnam Drive), starting at 7:00pm. There are several vacancies on the board of directors. For more info contact Tanya Hein (tanya.hein@travnet.org) or Phil Sweetnam (phil@pbcsweetnam.com).
Re Goulbourn Pool repairs. Perhaps the people responsible for shoddy work are hoping this will just blow over, but the fact remains that that pool was down for a very long time, due to completely inferior and inadequate roof design and lack of proper ventilation, among other problems.
There had better darn well be some clarity on the costs involved to remedy this, and that the ones responsible are held accountable. Real money was paid by tax payers, much of it through property taxes. This must not be taken lightly, and it must send a message for any future jobs, that if you deliver a public facility like this, that the end result really must be of that caliper where it holds up after continuous public use.
An example of a facility done well, is the Richcraft Recreation Complex in Kanata. You can see through and through that everything is of high quality that will last a long time. That kind of work truly contributes to its society, which is thoroughly enjoyed every single day, by many people. Many Stittvillians choose to use Richcraft over Goulbourn for these reasons.
Even after the repairs, it’s still kind of so so, because of poor design. The children’s play area for instance, has the same water temperature as the main pool because it’s all connected, which ends up being pretty cold. Goulbourn seems pretty deserted at times, and I bet these reasons have something to do with it. Those splashing fountain trees might seem cute and all, but it’s actually pretty uncomfortable at those temperatures. It’s really not that great of a design.