We've received the following update on Scott Street construction this moring:
Scott Street widening update
Work remaining
As the City gears up to build LRT Phase 2, it needs to test the geology along the route. To do so, it will dig as many as 8500 bore holes along the route. In a first phase between November and December, it will dig 25 hoes with 16 monitoring wells using two drill rigs and crews. The work is noisy, and depending on the conditions they may need to hydrovac. The work will be done during the day to mitigate some of the noise impact. In our ward, the following locations are planned through the end of December.
The hipsters and purists may get a little snippy with it sometimes, but I’m sure that few residents doubt Bluesfest’s preeminent place in our music scene. The world’s biggest acts rock its main stages, while dozens of smaller and local acts entertain crowds for days. For many of those Ottawa bands, it’s the biggest stage they’ll play in their lives – not to mention a good paycheque and great exposure.
On Tuesday, Nov 10, the Wellington West BIA, the Hintonburg Community Association and our office held an open house to present the findings from our Armstrong Street Study (click through for background info), completed by a group of Masters of Planning Students from McGill University. A big thank you to those who came to check it out, and for providing feedback!
Today, City staff presented a proposed 2016 budget that would keep the municipal tax increase to 2%. I and my colleagues have already begun combing through the document to see how this will affect the services you receive. We know that the City will cut the equivalent of 50 full-time staff to make the numbers work, dip into our reserves, as well as institute a number of cost-saving initiatives to balance the budget.
City Council will receive the draft budget today. For the next month or so, we'll debate it through the committee structure until passing the final version in early December. There's been a lot of press around the budget, and I likely don't need to tell residents about some of the challenges we're facing. Council has asked staff to develop a budget that would see us try to achieve no more than a 2% increase in property taxes. Today, we'll see how they suggest we accomplish that.
From Wednesday, November 11 to Friday, November 13, permission has been granted to the contractor to close Dovercourt Avenue between Tweedsmuir Avenue to Churchill Avenue. The contractor will be connecting new services at 275-277 Dovercourt. The following conditions apply:
Here are the current applications for variances and divisions being heard on Wednesday, November 18th at the Committee of Adjustment. The meetings are open to the public and any interested party can appear before the Committee to present their views in support of or in opposition to an application.
Share your vision
We are pleased to invite you to the Armstrong Street Study Public Consultation open house. You may recall we’ve been discussing this study for a few months now, and we are now ready for some constructive community feedback to integrate into the additional work being done by the study’s facilitators.
What is the Armstrong Street Study?
As many know, the City is currently undertaking a review of how it charges for water and stormwater. I sit on the Environment Committee, and am looking forward to hearing how staff will or won't recommend charging for water - which is currently billed strictly according to how much a household uses.
Reviewing how we charge for water and wastewater has become important since water usage is declining while expenditures are generally fixed and predictable.