Minutes of the February Executive Meeting – Tuesday February 24, 2015 at 99 Springmount Ave.

Present: Richard Cavanagh, Rosa Cordiano, Marie Goldthorpe, Vik Handa (Seeking Liberal nomination for federal election), John Keating (Chair), Anita Kung (recorder), Harry Lay, Margaret Smith, Robert Szachrajuk, Dick & Florence Watts

Regrets:Linda DeGiorgio, Beth Marcilio, Dave Meslin, Peter Norman, Mary Anne Quance

1. 1. Street Beautification
      1. Graffiti removal, planting, maintenance etc – nothing new to report
      2. Waste bin at Springmount Steps – Marie reported there has been no further progress. John will write a letter to the City from RHRA in support of the request to have a waste bin replaced at the bottom of the steps.
      3. Ice clearing initiative – John raised the issue of snow not being shoveled from the sidewalks through the winter. Residents are reminded that these addresses can be reported to 311 for a City inspector to follow up with and possibly issue a $125 fine for not clearing the snow within 48 hours of a snowfall. One can also call the Councillor’s office to file a complaint. The more calls the city receives regarding the same issue at the same address will get more attention. John will also re-send an email reminding residents to be nice and clear their ice. A few injuries have occurred this winter in the area from slipping on uncleared pavements.

 

1. 1. Planning, Zoning, Construction
      1. Potential school closings – John reported that he attended a meeting held by the school trustees a few weeks ago discussing potential school closings where student enrollment falls below 65%. Oakwood C.I. falls onto the list of potential schools for closure. Many other factors will be taken into consideration in the determination of the final list for closure. This process is expected to take several years. In the meantime, it was felt that RHRA would like to be involved in efforts to support keeping OCI open for students. Arguments to support this stance include: it is a heritage building worth keeping; with the increase in density planned for St. Clair Avenue, the demographics are expected to change and population increase; recent renovations to the building to accommodate disabled students should not be done in vain; the school has been outfitted to be accessible for special needs students; the OCI playing field acts as a precious bit of green space in our ward where green space is sorely lacking.
      2. Update on improving access to TDSB facilities – the next Community use of schools access committee (CUSAC) meeting is on Thursday February 26th at 9:30 a.m. at 5050 Yonge St. Margaret will be attending. A congratulations goes to Margaret for the initiative that she has taken to date in working towards keeping the public schools accessible to the public.
      3. Locations of future public meetings – Robert is to inquire at St. Clare school, Rosa to the Starving Artists, John to inquire at Cesar’s community office and library, and Florence to inquire at Regal Road Public school for costs and potential of using that location for a public meeting. Due to the changes in the school policies that make use of OCI too costly, we will tentatively scale back to two public meetings only this year. This topic will be raised for policy revision at the upcoming annual meeting.
      4. Communications update – as of Feb 23 there are 304 active subscribers to the RHRA email community and a total of 46 followers to the “@Regal_Heights” twitter page. Three people have unsubscribed from the email community and we have welcomed one new subscriber. 11 emails have been issued since the last executive meeting. Residents are encouraged to share our collaboration with other associations and community groups in the area to subscribe to our Twitter and Facebook pages, which focus more on this type of information. Links to these can be found at the bottom of each of the RHRA emails. The emails being sent continue to be focused on bringing information to residents that is deemed to be of interest of importance. We also entertain a small number of “personal request” emails for residents seeking/offering advice or services from other residents, and we display these separately in the subject line as “marketplace” in order to provide clarity.
      5. Update on grassy space beside the library – nothing to report.
      6. Oakwood Avenue improvements – Construction will be taking place this summer into the fall of 2015 along Oakwood Avenue between St. Clair Ave. and Rogers Road. The City will be working to formalize one traffic lane in each direction with 5 new bump outs, a dozen trees to be planted, reduced pedestrian crossing distance at two crosswalks, sidewalk repairs and road resurfacing. This will affect the traffic flow along Oakwood and possibly into our neighbourhood. Further questions will be entertained at a drop-in session on Wednesday March 4, 2015 at Oakwood Village library from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m and will be followed by a public meeting to be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

 

1. 1. Special Events
      1. Planning for Heritage Walk – last year the heritage walk done in conjunction with the Northcliffe Village Residents’ Association was well attended. It is hoped that another one could be held this spring. John will contact David Raymont to inquire whether he can guide the walk and when.
      2. Pub Night – we will plan for the next pub night to be held on Thursday March 26th.
      3. Schedule for 2015 federal all-candidates meeting – Margaret reported she is looking at October 19th to hold an all candidates debate meeting. She will contact the Northcliffe residents association, Davenport Perth Association and the RHVBIA again to collaborate on the meeting.

 

1. 1. Police Community Partnership – Rosa reported that the police will hold a session for parents at OCI to discuss the topic of sexting and their children. Rosa also feels that not all the information shared at the police meetings is appropriate to be passed on through our emailings. She will draft a policy to outline what is and is not appropriate and bring it forward for review at the next meeting.

 

1. 1. Community Welcome Project – nothing new to report

 

1. 1. Finances – deferred

 

1. 1. Membership – there have been 10 new memberships signed up. There have been 40 non-renewals.

 

1. Other
   1. Annual Meeting – location for the meeting needs to be confirmed. Florence to inquire of the Regal Road Public School principal whether Regal Road is available for us to use on Tuesday May 19th. It was suggested that we should invite a speaker to address the issue of potential school closures. John to inquire if Merritt Stiles is available.
   2. RHV BIA – Atefa Osmani, manager of Pizza Pizza has been voted in as the new chair for the Regal Heights Village BIA.

Next Meeting: Next Meeting: Tuesday March 17, 2015 at 7 p.m., 2 Springmount Ave. (Kung residence)