by Michael Jenkin
Lansdowne, OSCA Website, Winter Carnival, and Firehall Renovation
Lansdowne Developments
The pace on Lansdowne is picking up after the Christmas break. As I mentioned in my January column, we have been pressing the City to be consulted on the planning and studies that are being undertaken with respect to the site. This seems to be having some effect as we have been invited to two meetings:one to be held at the end of January to review the terms of reference for the new traffic study that will be carried out on Bank Street. The study will attempt to determine the street’s ability to handle the additional traffic generated by the site. Needless to say this will be an important issue for us and getting the study right is key. The second meeting we have been invited to has still to be arranged, but is with George Dark the urban planner and his team who have been engaged by the City to provide some design expertise on various parts of the site. I will be reporting on these meetings, and others that concern Lansdowne that may happen over the month in my next column.
New OSCA Website
I reported in my January column that work was proceeding well on the design of a new website for OSCA. Well, the Board reviewed and approved the final design of the new website at its January meeting and it should be up and running in February. The web committee under John Calvert, including Chris Solar and Gwen Gall have put in a ton of work on this project and the results speak for themselves. The new design will be much easier to maintain and will be easier for users to navigate. Access to the OSCA program guide will be more straightforward and you will be able to enrol in programs online as you do now. A lot of the content has been updated and new features will enable you to search the site, post upcoming events, participate in forums, and link to the OSCAR. A full article on what will be available on the site will appear in next month’s paper. The address for the site www.oldottawasouth.ca will remain the same.
Winter Carnival
OSCA’s annual winter Carnival will be held in Windsor Park on Sunday, February 7 between noon and 2 p.m. This is always a fun event with sleigh rides and games for both kids and adults and lots of hot food and drinks to help keep you warm. Please do come out, have some fun, and meet the neighbours!
Firehall Renovation
Those of you who may have walked by the construction site recently will have noticed some changes. The addition’s foundations are complete and the steel skeleton for the building is now in place. By early February the roof and walls should be up so that interior work on the addition can begin in earnest. The Firehall itself has been entirely gutted inside and partially excavated. So far the project seems to be on schedule and just as importantly, no unanticipated issues have been encountered that would slow construction or add to the cost of the project, always a worry when you are dealing with a building as old as the Firehall. We are already doing some initial planning for the move back and on the grand opening events, as well as what the new programming structure will look like with our expanded facilities. There will be articles on both of these issues in future issues of the OSCAR.