Old Ottawa South

PAST PRESIDENT'S POSTSCRIPT FOR NOV 99

By Douglas Stickley

NEW OSCA PRESIDENT

After the customary two years as the President of OSCA, I have stepped down in favour of John Graham. John served as the OSCA Vice-President last year and led the study of options for our Community Centre. He also spearheaded the on-going drive for renovations and expansion of the Old Firehall. John and his wife Lynn, a former OSCA Director and current Trustee for the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, have been active in the community for many years.

I look back with fond memories on my time as President and I am proud of what the Board has done. Many challenges were faced, some compromises were necessary, and a few battles were lost, but, for the most part, the accomplishments were significant. I believe the community is all the better off for the Board's achievements. I offer my congratulations to John and pledge my support to him and the new Board. I will be staying on as Past President to help out where I can. It was my honour and privilege to serve the community in the capacity as its Association President. I thank Mayor Jim Watson for his kind words at the AGM and the presentation to me of a print of the Bank Street Bridge to mark my term as President.

OSCA'S ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Close to fifty people attended this year's AGM, which is the largest attendance I've seen in my six years on the Board. Many came out to hear about our proposed expansion of the Firehall and to discuss David Hillary's plan to build a car wash as an addition to his successful Dry Cleaning business. I had the opportunity to review events affecting our community over the past year and Committee Chairs delivered their annual reports. The location of our Community Centre was the year's hottest topic. The issue of Lansdowne Park was resolved. A number of Old Ottawa South residents were recognised with Whitton Awards. These included Deirdre McQuillan, Mike Lascelles, Michael Loewen, Lyne Burton, Joan Garvey, and, yours truly. ECOS was honoured with a City of Ottawa Environmental Award and former OSCA President Greg Wright received a Mayor's Award for Community Service. The Capital Ward Yard adjacent to Windsor Park was saved for future integration into the Park thanks to the intervention of Mayor Watson, City Councillor Inez Berg and a residents' group headed by Gary Lum. A sidewalk on the East Side of Bristol Avenue between Fentiman and Belmont was constructed with funds provided by Councillor Berg. Regional Councillor Clive Doucet arranged for a massive re-treeing effort along Bronson Avenue and worked hard to get approval for the Light Rail Project. The OSCA Board secured a $7,500 City of Ottawa Self-Help Grant that will be matched by OSCA to make minor improvements to the Firehall. A number of residents came out to help paint the lounge, the activity room and some of the hallways. Their work has really brightened up the place. St. Margaret Mary School was saved from closure due to the determined efforts of a group headed by Reg Charette. The dream of a Hopewell Public School Grass Yard became a reality thanks to Gordon Stokoe and an army of volunteers who raised over $20,000 to make it happen. Bank Street reconstruction is once again up in the air. We are not sure when it will be done. Glenn Elder's OSWATCH Committee was ever vigilant, commenting on various zoning issues. Our Program Committee, chaired by Lora Lindsay, resurrected an Annual Volunteer Appreciation Dinner and did a terrific job delivering the many popular program activities that we run in co-operation with the City. The Co-chairs for ECOS, Mike Lascelles and Mike Loewen, were busy working on the ECOS Millennium Project and putting to good use the $100,000 Federal grant it received to "Restore the Rideau River". A hugely successful one-day workshop was held by ECOS in partnership with the City, the Region and a number of other groups. Our Community Relations Committee, headed by Peter Wells, succeeded in two major projects, "Your Essential Guide to Old Ottawa South" and the OSCA/OSCAR website at http://www.oldottawasouth.com. Abby Pollonetsky organised our 4th annual Media Night which was again one of the social events of the year. Our 7th Annual Porch Sale was a success thanks to Deirdre, a host of volunteer canvassers organised by Willi Devonish, and by the hundreds of residents who generously donated a portion of their sales to support OSCA activities. Our membership grew to over 1,300 residents due to Pat Kealey's system of area and block reps. The OSCAR continued to flourish under Editor Peter Hecht despite of the arrival of The News / The Glebe and Ottawa South. OSCAR, the finest community newspaper in the Region, delivers on the grassroots issues while The News, with its bi-weekly publication dates, has found its niche providing timely in-depth reporting of events. The only sad point in the year was that OSCA was victimised by a fraud artist who stole and altered a cheque that was subsequently cashed in the amount of $9,800. To put the magnitude of this loss in perspective, it takes about five Porch Sales to raise this amount of money. We are working with lawyer Kent Howie in an attempt to recover our money.

THANK YOU FORMER BOARD MEMBERS

While John Graham will be advising you in his column about the new OSCA Board for 1999/2000, I wish to recognise those Board members who did not stand for re-election. They are David Bouse, Kate Fawkes, Mike Lascelles, Gary Lum, Peter Wells, Terry Winsor, and, Greg Wright. Our community is indebted to you for your work in making Old Ottawa South a better place to live. As well, special thanks are due to our Executive Director, Deirdre McQuillan, Marim Moreland, our contracted accountant, Cathie Buchanan, the City's Director of the Community Centre, and, to Dinos Dafniotis, the City's Program Co-ordinator for the Firehall. Thanks as well to Councillors Berg and Doucet for your guidance and wise counsel. OSCA would not be the successful organisation that it is without your outstanding support.

PRESIDENT'S REPORT FOR NOV 99

BY JOHN GRAHAM

One of my hesitations in agreeing to stand for the President of OSCA was having to measure up to the high standard that Doug Stickley has set for this office. Diligent, courteous, patient, hard-working, intelligent, ethical, knowledgeable about the community - these are a few adjectives that can be used to describe Doug and he will be difficult to emulate.

Fortunately, we will have his wise counsel for at least one more year on the OSCA Board. Doug, on behalf of the community of Old Ottawa South, a sincere and much deserved thank you for all of your efforts to make our community a better place in which to live.

THE NEW OSCA BOARD

Returning to the Board are the following individuals, all of whom have made significant contributions to the past success of OSCA: Brad Cairns, Glenn Elder, Marey Gregory, Michael Jenkin, Pat Kealey, Derrick Keefe, Lora Lindsay, Michael Loewen, Michael Lynch, Abby Pollonetsky and Doug Stickley.

We are fortunate to have a distinguished group of newcomers to the Board including: Bob Adamyk, Jane Allain, Robert Burr, Caroline Calvert, Anne-Marie Corbett, Brenda Lee, Kristina Liljefors and Brian Tansey.

All in all, it is an impressive Board and we can look forward to the continued support from Deirdre McQuillan, our 'award-winning' Executive Director. Joining Doug Stickley and me on the Executive Committee are Michael Jenkin as Vice-President and Lora Lindsay as Secretary.

COMING YEAR PRIORITIES

Given the dynamic and ever-changing nature of our community, it is difficult to predict with certainty what issues will dominate the Board's attention for the next year. Certainly the re-development of the Firehall will command a lot of our attention.

Local architects Bill Semple and Bob Webster have volunteered to do elevation drawings for the proposed addition. Once these have been completed and reviewed, we will need to consult extensively with those households neighboring the Firehall; work with city officials to ensure our proposal meet their needs; develop a business plan so that we can enter the queue for funding purposes; and develop and execute a fund-raising strategy.

Other Board priorities will likely be the following:

• redevelopment of Bank Street, should that project be slated for next year;
• ensuring the transfer of Lansdowne Park to the Region and its ongoing management is sensitive to our community's interests;
• transportation issues affecting the community, including the Airport Parkway;
• dealing with the fraudulent cheque issue (see Doug Stickley's column);
• Windsor Park play structure and Windsor Park yard;
• transition process following a provincial decision on municipal restructuring; and
• effective management and further development of our recreation programs and the ongoing ECOS project relating to the Rideau River.

MUNICIPAL RESTRUCTURING

The OSCA Board has decided to endorse the position taken by the Federation of Citizens' Association (FCA), a coalition of 25 community associations from across the Region. We communicated this endorsement to Glen Shortliffe, whom the Province has appointed to advise it on this important matter, along with the suggestion that he consider augmenting in a modest way the number of councillors from the current eighteen, should he recommend a one city model. Our reason for this latter suggestion flowed from a concern that a one city model would increase the range and number of issues facing a councillor, thus reducing his or her ability to consult adequately.

The FCA position on municipal restructuring included the following points:

• A one city, one tier model of municipal governance;
• Appointment of a transition team to include representatives from community associations and other stakeholder groups;
• Charging the transition team with recommending the structure at the local level that can best engage citizens in local matters;
• Continuation of the Regional Official Plan, adopted in 1997;
• Inclusion of the four rural municipalities in the one city model; and
• Dealing with the divergent quality, services and funding levels of libraries as a priority issue during the transition period.

Of significance in the FCA position is the lack of consensus among community associations on how local issues such as zoning and recreation should be handled in a one tier model.