Leuty Station to get a lift next year By Josh Sherman
Volume 46 No. 19
December 12, 2017
THE CITY has a six-figure plan to preserve the historic Leuty Lifeguard Station at Kew Beach from heightened lakewater levels, Beach Metro has learned. “In order to protect and secure the Leuty Lifeguard Station, we plan to raise the structure approximately one metre onto pilings using a crane,” said Jane Arbour, a city spokesperson, in an email. The city said the cost of the project would be approximately $200,000 and that the community will be shown plans at a public meeting early in 2018. According to the city, this is the first time it is rais-
ing the nearly century-old structure. This spring, historian and Beach Metro columnist Gene Domagala said the lifeguard station had been moved three times in the course of its history. In the early 1990’s, the city was going to tear the station down after it fell into disrepair. Domagala along with historian Glenn Cochrane and former councillor Tom Jakobek created the “Save our Station” group. With the support of the community, the group raised nearly $75,000 to preserve the station. Earlier this year, city workers used armour stone and sandbags in an effort to protect the lifeguard station, which dates back to 1920, from the encroaching tide.
PHOTO: ANN BROKELMAN
‘Pure luck’ meeting these bucks Beach Metro wildlife columnist Ann Brokelman was out running errands on Dec. 6 when she stopped to enjoy a coffee at Morningside Park. To her surprise, three bucks – the two older bucks are pictured, a young buck with one antler is off camera on the edge of the woods – stepped out and started fighting right in front of her, giving her such a jolt she dropped her coffee. “Pure luck,” she said of the encounter, even with the spilled coffee. Luckily for us, she was carrying her camera.
Police station site selection delayed By Josh Sherman
THE SITE selection process for an amalgamated 55 and 54 Division police station has been delayed as city staff mulls community feedback. A report to executive committee will now take place on Jan. 24, 2018, instead of the originally scheduled Nov. 29 date “to allow more time for the project team to consider and respond to community feedback,” according to an email statement forwarded by city spokesperson Natasha Hinds Fitzsimmins. The city narrowed down a list of approximately 550 potential sites for a station to house the amalgamated division before beginning public consultations this past October. The three final sites were East York Civic Centre at 850 Coxwell
Ave., the TTC garage at 1627 Danforth Ave., and the existing 55 Division headquarters at 101 Coxwell Ave. Toronto Police Services outlined specific criteria to the city’s real estate services division that any police station site would need to offer, including room for a 50,000-squarefoot building with a footprint of 25,000 square feet. Brad Bradford, a board member of the Danforth East Community Association, a group that has been engaging with the city during the consultation process, said a letter the group sent the city triggered the delay. “We want to kind of pump the breaks and just have a chance to consider the process and the evaluation framework and how we got to
where we are,” he said. “For DECA, it’s absolutely not no to any of the stations or the proposals but it’s, you know, if we’re moving forward with this, how can we make sure that the Coxwell Danforth site—which is such a prominent location on Danforth—how can we make sure that what we’re going to do there achieves the goals of the community,” he added. The community has long eyed the TTC garage at Coxwell and Danforth as a possible community hub, Bradford noted. Some in the community have suggested another site could be viable and spare the Coxwell and Danforth site. Continued on Page 3
Meet the band
PHOTO: JOSH SHERMAN
The Barons Band, a local Dixieland jazz band with a loyal following, plays the Coxwell Legion every Tuesday afternoon. Read all about it on Page 14.