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City of Ottawa Councillor Reports By Shad Qadri, Councillor Ward Six Stittsville City of Ottawa
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Mary P. Miller
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Stittsville News - JULY 21, 2011
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July 18, 2011
Ottawa Light Rail Transit Update On July 14th, Ottawa City Council voted unanimously to advance the Ottawa Light Rail Transit project, as announced by Mayor Jim Watson on July 7th. The approved report contains an updated cost estimate – within the budget of $2.1 billion – a new design plan and a clear and affordable path for OLRT implementation. The revised Queen Street alignment outlined in the report improves ridership experience, brings the tunnel closer to the surface, reduces risk and improves cost certainty for construction. The change allows the tunnel to be constructed at a depth of 15 to 16 metres instead of 39 to 40 metres. The revisions mean it should take LRT passengers roughly one minute to descend to the stations instead of two minutes. The report also recommends a Design-Build-Finance-Maintain (DBFM) procurement approach that will secure a fixed price contract to construct and maintain the LRT system from Tunney’s Pasture in the west to Blair Road in the east. This 12.5km, 13 station LRT system includes a tunnel through the downtown core to address the transit bottleneck that slows service and challenges the reliability of the system today. This procurement approach will ensure this project is on time and on budget while taking advantage of the ingenuity and innovative ideas of private sector partners. The City of Ottawa commenced its request for qualifications process to identify firms with a proven track record in delivering successful LRT solutions to cities around the globe. For more information: www.ottawalightrail.ca New Hydro Online Outage map In June, Hydro Ottawa launched a power outage map on their website. This latest addition to their outage communications portfolio displays the location of current outages, the estimated number of customers affected, the cause of the outage and the estimated time of restoration, if known. This information is updated every 15 minutes. Now, customers can access power outage updates by visiting hydroottawa.com/outagemap in addition to calling their Outage Reporting and Information Line at 613 738-0188. Hydro Ottawa is among the top performers in the industry in providing uninterrupted electricity service, and restoring power quickly when outages happen. When a power outage occurs, Hydro Ottawa’s first priority is to respond to any unsafe conditions. Once safe, the next steps are communications and the restoration of service as quickly as possible. Hydro Ottawa welcomes your feedback on this new feature as they will continue to develop new solutions that will make information even more accessible. The link mentioned above will also be posted on my website. Hazeldean Road Construction Update The paving of Springbrook Drive from East Hazeldean to Trailway Circle has begun which will see the installation of a concrete sidewalk, on west side of Stittsville Main from Neil Street to about 260m south, begin shortly. Subsequent work is also on schedule to begin the installation of medians allowing better access to the Amberlakes Subdivision and Neil Avenue. The proposed construction work on the extension of Springbrook Drive from the south limit of the Hazeldean Road contract to Trailway Circle includes road resurfacing, installation of street lights ducts and miscellaneous concrete work. Phase II of the Hazeldean construction will also see the re-paving of Iber Road from Hazeldean to just north of Abbott Street. The proposed work on extension of Johnwoods from the north contract limit to Alon Street will include road resur-
facing, but this will also give us the unique opportunity to remove the two speed humps on Johnwoods during the re-paving. We undertook a survey on this issue in the local area in order to gage what the community would like to do regarding these speed humps. The results from all the residents, who responded, are as follows: (91.2%) of residents want them removed and (8.8%) of residents want them left in. The reasons for the proposed removal are as follows: With the extension of Huntmar Road now enabled and the four-lane completion of Hazeldean now weeks away, traffic has decreased on Johnwoods rendering the humps mostly irrelevant. The humps themselves are also worn out and causing damage to vehicles including emergency vehicles and their response time. With the proposed speed humps being removed, this would be an opportune time to remind all residents using this street and any street in our community and city as a whole, to please respect the speed limit. Certainly if you witness any speeding on this or any street, do not hesitate to report this immediately to Police at 613-236-1222 x. 7300. Every call is recorded and ensures that specific “hot spots” are identified for future monitoring. OC Transpo Route Changes OC Transpo’s Service Design team has finalized the route changes and how they will operate beginning in September. Staff are now beginning the process of developing schedules that will be made available to customers; this work will be completed over the next few weeks. As a result, beginning August 1st, the Travel Planner (octranspo.com) will have the functionality of allowing customers to view their route 60 days in advance – the usual process only allows for a 14 day view. This will allow customers to plan their trips with the new routes and service schedule. OC Transpo is continuing to develop a comprehensive communications strategy, which has developed a theme and website – checkyourroute.ca – and a number of opportunities to connect with customers. For more information please consult www.octranspo. com Youth Connexion Movie Nights In July and August, Youth Connexion will be offering free movie nights on every Tuesday beginning at 9pm in July and 8:30pm in August at the Stittsville Village Square Park. All ages are welcome and snacks will be available. For more information on the movie night and other Youth Connexion activities, please consult the Youth Programs Tab on my website or contact Kyla Helping, Director of Youth Connexion (Stittsville & Richmond) Program Coordinator - Rural Goulbourn Youth Representative at 613-580-2424 ext.33230 Fax: 613-580-2815 youthconnexion@ottawa.ca. Always listening and acting on your concerns As your Councillor, I always welcome your keen input and ideas on how we can sustain and improve Stittsville. Please contact our office anytime by phone at 613-5802476 or by e-mail at Shad.Qadri@ottawa.ca. My ward office is situated in the Goulbourn Recreation Complex, located at 1500 Shea Road. Please note the summer hours of operation are Mondays 9-1pm, Wednesdays 3-7pm, Fridays 9-4pm, and Saturday 9am12pm. Please do not hesitate to pay us a visit. I welcome your call or email to arrange an appointment. If you are not part of my electronic outreach list and would like to be added, please contact my office to ensure you receive pertinent information concerning our community. Further information about any of these articles can be found on my website or you can contact my office to obtain details.
Photo supplied
Canadian 200 m backstroke record holder Matt Hawes, who considers the upcoming world championships in Shanghai, China ‘a great dress rehearsal’ for next summer’s Olympic Games in London, stretches as he leaves the starting blocks.
Matt Hawes aiming at great swim DAN PLOUFFE Special to the News
He’s no longer a rookie to the world stage by any means, and as swimmer Matt Hawes prepares for his second career FINA Aquatics World Championships July 24-31 in Shanghai, China, the 25-year-old Sacred Heart High School graduate is ready to show he’s one of the very fastest swimmers on the planet. “I am really excited about the 200-metre backstroke and I feel like I’m ready for a major breakthrough onto the world scene this year,” Hawes says by e-mail from the Canadian team’s pre-worlds training camp in Singapore. “I have posted a lot of fast races this year, which has only boosted my confidence coming into World Championships.” Hawes currently owns the 23rd best 200 m backstroke time posted in 2011, although his personal-best time of one minute, 57.34 seconds – set at the Canadian team trials for the 2009 worlds, where he wound up placing 21st – would put him in the top-10. But Hawes’ aim for the worlds is even a step higher in his signature event. “I think anything is possible,” explains the Canadian 200 m back record holder who placed 10th at a 2010 World Cup race in Berlin. “You got to think big to be big. I am aiming for a great swim in the final.” Hawes’ first trip to Asia is the latest stop in a swim career that’s taken him to many places across the globe. Now into the second season where he’s returned to the Ottawa area as his home training base after a stint at the University of British Colombia, Hawes now lives in Sandy Hill and studies at the University of Ottawa when he’s home, which isn’t a whole lot due to his swimming schedule. “I have been away for training and competitions the majority of the year,” notes the holder of six Gee-Gees swimming records under coach Derrick Schoof, who came over from UBC to take over the U of O program at the same time as Hawes. “But whenever I am in town I make sure to drop into my parents’ for a good home cooked meal.”
Hawes’ parents, Lisa and John, live in Stittsville where John sometimes holds shooting practices for the athletes he coaches for the modern pentathlon national team. Although John is a former Olympian himself (he competed in the modern pentathlon exactly 35 years ago this week in Montreal, and previously attended the 1972 Games for swimming), he says he was “very much the parent” throughout his son’s career, minus the early teen years when he coached Matt at his ROC swim club, based out of Carleton University. John feels “quite proud” of what Matt has achieved, especially considering that at age nine when “he showed up to his first local swim meet, he took one look inside the pool and said, ‘I’m not doing that, I’m outta here!’” John recalls. “It’s quite a process and I think I’ve enjoyed the process probably more than I have enjoyed those particular moments of success like winning nationals or qualifying for teams,” John adds. “It’s a real journey and I’ve had a real good time watching the whole thing.” The coaching-style message about the importance of focusing on the process instead of the end goal is one that Matt certainly understands well. With the world championships on tap and just a year outside of the London 2012 Olympics, Matt says he concentrates his energy on daily objectives rather than getting overwhelmed by the prospect of competing in his first Games next summer. “The Olympic thought is always in the back of my mind,” notes the 2007 Pan American Games fourth-place finisher who also picked up a 4x100 m medley relay bronze medal in Brazil. “World Championships is my last major international competition before the Olympics in London and it is a great rehearsal. It would be my dream to represent Canada at the Olympics, but I’m taking it one step at a time right now.” The world championships 100 m backstroke race goes Monday, July 25 in Shanghai, followed by the finals the next day. The 200 m back is on July 28, with finals on July 29.