Environment Report and News

By: Jan Korinek

Thanks to all those that responded to the community wide traffic survey via the Traffic Issues Reporting Form. We gained some really good feedback from this exercise and I'd like to report some of the results back to the community.

Many of you have identified the intersection of 9th Ave and 20th/17th St by the Colonel Walker School as a dangerous one. You have noted that pedestrian safety both of students and adults is an issue here. The causes you've noted come from various sources some permanent and some temporary. First, cars seem to be unaware of or ignore the school and playground zone designations resulting in vehicle speeds that are too high and jeopardize the safety of other road users. Second, many of you have noted that during evening peaks, many motorists hoping to avoid the left turn line up to Blackfoot/Deerfoot attempt to shortcut through this area and either become frustrated and speed through the streets, or deliberately u-turn illegally and head back to 19th St. Third, the ongoing construction of Legacy Savings and associated construction impacts coupled with school bus parking and students crossing 9th Ave creates a possible outcome no one wants to explore or predict. Finally, many of you have noted that the signage and road markings in this area are inadequate resulting in either a mixed message to drivers or no message at all.

You'll notice that the City has moved ahead on the above intersection with temporary measures by simulating road narrowing curb extensions in the form of concrete barriers. This will be reviewed in further detail once we have been given a priority on the City's List. The pedestrian crossing is also slated for a zebra style paint upgrade this summer. Please restrain yourself from Abbey Road album cover photo opportunities during peak times.

Others have identified the intersections and corridors surrounding the intersection of 9th Ave and 12th St. You have pointed out that pedestrian and cyclist traffic conflicts with motorist traffic in this area. The causes you've noted come from two main sources. First, the width of 12th St up to the zoo bridge allows motorists to travel at high speeds while giving the pedestrians a longer distance to cover with a high likelihood of being noticed well after a crossing has begun. Second, morning peaks see short cutting opportunists avoiding the lined up right turn from 12th St to 9th Ave and opting for another route instead. Many of you noted that the urgency surrounding this intersection is high given recent motorist and non-motorist collisions in this area.

A few of the board members will be meeting with Joe Ceci and the City to discuss temporary measures in this area as well.

Several other areas have been documented as well. New St has been identified as an area needing some attention with respect to speeding vehicles. This corridor is a popular spot for kids, especially now that Nellie Breen has been unveiled. 9th Ave/17th Ave and 15th St is another pedestrian unfriendly zone with concerns regarding speeding and motorist confusion. In general, the avenues that parallel 9th have been noted as popular short cutting corridors that invite cyclist/pedestrian and motorist conflicts.

I could go into further detail on some of these, but the important point here is that now that we have gathered this information, we can take it to the City with an organized approach. To those of you that took the time to reply to the traffic issues; You have been heard and your message will be forwarded to the right place. I will be assembling the forms and emails into a folder and taking our efforts to the next step. Thanks to all who participated!

As always, questions can be emailed to me at environment@icacalgary.com

Inglewood Rain Barrel Sale (Trial Version)

To those of you who may have attended the general meeting where I floated the idea of hosting a rain barrel sale in Inglewood, well we're doin' it! I was able to secure some funding from Conoco Phillips in conjunction with the Community Footprint Program (read as environmental footprint) for the purpose of subsidizing a small sale in our community. My goal here is to provide an opportunity to our residents to get into rain water harvesting at a discounted price. As it's a first in Inglewood, and the funding I received has limits, I'm starting small. I'm setting a target of 50 rain barrels to be distributed to willing buyers on Saturday July 11th at 10:00 am. Normally, the rain barrels from the Clean Calgary Association run $85 before tax. With our subsidy, I'm setting a price of $63.50. That's 25% off. The price includes delivery to the Community Hall on July 11th. I'm accepting orders only. You can either email me at jkorinek.ica@gmail.com or call me at 403.992.1144. We will then make arrangements for payment. The amount will be $63.50 + GST. There may be critics out there saying "what about the rain I could have captured in June?". To the them I say, "think long term". What about the rain that falls next year, and the year after that, and the year after that? Get the picture?

For more information on why having a rain barrel is a good thing, visit the City of Calgary website and search "rain barrel". In brief, we pay through taxes and metering for the energy for our drinking water to be treated and distributed to our taps so we can drink it. Pretty convenient, eh? Then we take that expensive drinkable treated and piped product and pour it on our lawns. So we can grow grass. Grass. That's that annoying green stuff that you always have to cut. Would you wash your car with 25 year old Highland Park Scotch ($300/bottle)? No. That would be an unwise use of resources, wouldn't it. Same with City distributed drinking water. It's precious, it is not unlimited, and unlike scotch, we can't live without it. Just think of the water bill savings alone!

Or check out the product at Clean Calgary Association's website under the "rain barrel page" and look for Rain Barrel - Model B. It's food grade plastic at 45 gallons. It comes with two taps, one for watering and one for overflow. It also comes with a screen over the catchment hole. She's a beauty. These are paintable.

If this year's sale goes over well, look for more of the same in the future, only bigger, better, faster, and stronger.

SEWER SIPHON PROJECT

By Jackie Hamilton

There will be no activity in the park adjacent to Inglewood Grove on this project until the end of September. The tunneling machine required for the project is under repair with new parts being manufactured for the machine. Currently, one tunnel under the riverbed is complete. The second tunnel is unfinished. The equipment repairs have resulted in a project delay and is the project is now scheduled to be finished sometime in the spring of 2010 instead of this fall. Crews will be working from October through the winter so we can expect some noise again but the summer will be very quiet.

In the meantime, the City of Calgary wanted us to be able to enjoy the park for the summer. By the end of June, the weeds will be disposed of, the grass reseeded and most of the orange construction fence that is cutting through the park will be taken down. The temporary road will continue to be secured by the fence, however, two temporary passageways between the two bike paths will be created.

The temporary detour for the bike path at the west end will probably remain as this path is functioning well as is.