Mayor and Council Approve Park Construction

If not totally predictable, then let it be semi-historic, Mayor and Council formally approved the construction of the proposed park at the "rez". I spent the evening in council chambers biding my time by live-tweeting on council agenda that contained issues like asphalt tendering, illegal dumping, Sea Dogs winning, soap-box derbies, etc while waiting for our agenda item to come up. It was forgone that the vote would pass; they had unanimously accepted the notion of it during the session before but needed to exercise diligence by getting some hard numbers on maintenance costs.

To clarify what this all means allow me to elaborate. The City of Saint John owns the land on which the future park shall lay. In order to get the necessary permits from the province to work around the waterway that is the Little River, the owner had to give the go-ahead to do so. Soooo, with the whack of a gavel tonight, the City gave its consent to build, build, build. The vote was unanimous. I got several winks, thumbs up and nods from the councilors and Mayor as the vote passed. Whoo hoo!

So, Irving Oil has committed their resources to make a run at this project and the City has committed to maintaining it after the ribbon is cut. LRRA's role will be to ensure its continued viability as a community space through programming events and activities there. That is the plan and we all hope it works out.

I want to thank those at Leisure Services who helped pull this together. They got the information that council needed in order to cast a vote in less than two weeks. Great job folks.

Once construction begins, hopefully this summer, LRRA will start a Facebook page to keep folks up to date on this great project. I will keep you all posted.

Tonight, however, I will sip my celebratory single malt then sleep well. I feel like the world just got a tiny bit better today.

LRRA Finds a Really Good Friend

Some big news to tell you. Really the biggest news we've ever had with the exception of announcing our existance back in '07. And we are so happy to share it with you. Since our inception we have been seeking a major partner for the project. Rather than scraping for funding from many sources we were hoping that someone would see this project and say, "we've got it covered." That seems a lot to ask but one can always dream, right? Well, That dream has come true for us. Last night, in council chambers, LRRA formally announced its new friend and partner in this project, Irving Oil. Wow.

The folks at Irving Oil have pledged to work towards making this park a reality, and really, we can't think of a better organization to have on our side. They have a great history of working with the community, they are here in the community, they value the sense of community and they do things right. We are so pleased.

From the moment we showed them the project they loved it. They realized its potential as a wonderful asset to the community just as much as everyone else who has seen it has. And with this committment, the park is one step closer to reality.

We'll keep you all posted on news as it comes in, but today we are happy. Today is a good news day.

Many have noticed the activity taking place around the Rez. There has been a near army of heavy equipment and folks zooming around in trucks. And, if you noticed the huge supply of massive pipeline sections being trucked in and layed down, then you've probably guessed that its a pipeline project.

As many people in the community know, there is a pipeline that runs from the drinking water supply at Latimore Lake beneath the "Pipeline Road". What many do not know is that the pipeline that is being replaced is made of wood and dates from the 1700s!

As part of its ongoing efforts to modernize the water supply, the City of Saint John is now wrapping up this pipeline project. During the lead-up to construction Little River Reservoir Association was contacted by city officials to take our input both on how their work would affect our activities and how we thought we could make the finished pipeline project better. We were thrilled to be able to sit down with both city staff and the engineering firm that was handling the job. Obviously we don't know much about pipelines but we do have insight on how to best curb the illegal dumping activities that serve to contaminate the very water that they are delivering to its customers. We also have a pretty clear vision of how we would like to place to look when its finally a park. We showed them our plans we have for the walking trail and they offered to make improvements to their design based on our input. Here is what they have done that we had suggested:

The Curve

At about three hundred meters to the east of the parking lot there is a noticeable serpentine section of roadway with some trees on either side. This actually has a purpose! Eventually, when the trees mature, this will form a visual break in the road that will guide the users of the trail to the planned trail head nearby. It will block the view of the long, unappealing road and make the users of the trail feel that they are in a more secluded area.

Gates

Obviously, illegal dumping is carried out by people in cars or trucks. If you can't get in there with a vehicle then the trash is more likely to end up in a proper landfill rather than a planned park and watershed. Gates and other physical barriers (big rocks) have been placed in strategic areas to eliminate truck and car traffic.

Visual Improvements

This was the fun part! Remember those huge sections of old pipeline that stuck out the ground near the parking lot? They had been there so long that trees had been growing out of them. They are now gone. Good riddance. Ugly. Next was the berm. Remember the big hump of dirt beside the parking lot. I'm not really sure why it was put there but its now gone. Woo hoo! A great surprise for us was the new layer of asphalt on the parking lot. We didn't see that coming but boy are we happy. The old stuff was looking pretty bad. Also, you'll notice some new trees around the parking lot that were planted just recently.

Things aren't done there just yet but as I said, it is wrapping up. What I want to say on behalf of the Board of Directors of LRRA, without hesitation, is that the folks at city hall were absolutely fabulous to work with. They did what they said they were going to do and then some. They took guidance from us, the indigenous folk if you will, on how to make the project work for everyone and they followed through. What a pleasant experience.

LRRA Proclaims Project to City Council

Well, it was a rough go. I was sick with a baaad flu and seriously considered rescheduling. However, I had been in the cue for months to get the spot in front of Council and figured that I may as well just go ahead and do it. I medicated myself fairly heavily with what amounted to a king's ransom in pharmacutecals, which had kept me up the whole night before. Like I said, it was rough.

The mission was to simply proclaim our intent to develop the site to Mayor, Council & Staff in an official way. It is, after all, City lands, so they are logically included in this project. The Powerpoint was done on the previous week but my speaking parts only got finished a couple of hours before I got in front of the lecturn to speak. I feared it would sound a little sloppy but I think it went OK. It gave a chronological journey through all of the phases of the project to date including the conception, forming the association, all of the clean-ups, the architectual stuff, etc. Pretty much what you can see on the website.

Well golly, it went very well. Every one of the councillors, save one, spoke and threw their support behind the thing. What a relief! I don't do public speaking very often so I'm always unsure of myself. Not nervous, just unsure.

Anyway, they loved the whole thing and now staff is going to study it and try to work it into their larger plans for the city. We'll see how it goes when we actually ask them for money!

I want to take a few lines to thank the City Staff. I deal with many, many people in the run of a day in my real job at Imperial Theatre. No where do I run into more consisitantly helpful, smart, good people than I do at the City of Saint John. They are the often treated with a little harshness, which I think is unjustified. I have nothing but good things to say about these folks. Bravo to them for helping LRRA down this path. They have been fantastic to us.

Hopefully this summer will see lots of movement on this project so keep your eyes on us.

Before I close, here is a nice article that April Robinson wrote in the TJ. Thanks again April!

http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/city/article/985691

Cheers.

CBC Blitz!

The media has really stepped up to the plate on getting the word out about this project. Beyond getting the "story" they've really shown an obvious desire to have folks hear about our proposed park. (They must be those granola types.) CBC Radio and TV have both featured spots for us during the past two days and we couldn't be happier with the results. We've received lots of e-mails and phone-calls from folks who want to help or who just want to wish us well. To us this speaks volumes of how much the walking trail is needed. We are not shouting at walls here, people are listening and agreeing with us. "Just build the darned thing!"

Special mention must be made of Chris Corday, the Journalist who came out to the Rez itself to do a shoot, interview and story. He was the camera guy, the voice-overguy, the producer-guy, and handled it all like a bloody ninja. He danced around puddles and hopped over obstacles with this shoulder-grip camera like Bruce Lee. All the while filming us walking. Hes a heckuva nice fella too. Thanks Chris.

Thanks to CBC for helping make this fly.

TJ Article

August 26th, 2009

Well, I was getting a little nervous that the article wouldn't run. You see, I did the interview on Saturday and was getting antsy when I didn't see it on Monday and then again on Tuesday. Relief came today at both seeing the story and that I didn't look like a total goof in the picture. I usually do.

Certainly the reporter, a very nice April Robinson, nailed it all down very nicely without any embellishments.

Of course, me being in the paper makes it look a bit like I'm the only one working at this, when in actuallity there is so much that happens without me. Our Board is a dedicated group and I want to make mention of them.

Thanks to the Telegraph Journal for getting the word out. You can check out the article here: http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/city/article/771981

August 19, 2009

Hello everyone and Happy Trails.

This will be the location for all things being "rez". Thanks for coming by. Today is the launch of our website and, as a consequence, this blog. I'd like to thank the folks at Pulse Communications; Mark, Luba and Metaxia were patient, helpful and completely aware that I was making all attempts at avoiding them so that I could put this off just one more day. I was secretly hoping they would do all of the work!

My first request for you, the reader, is to actually make your way to the rez and explore it. Its a fantastic spot. Print yourself off a google earth image so you wont get lost! Seriously, its a real spider-web of trails that could keep you there a lot longer than you may be comfortable with. With a quick walk around you will gain such a respect for the place and a deeper understanding of what can be done with the place. When you get there, just envision what it could look like and then you'll be officially bitten by the mysterious "rez bug" that seems to latch onto everyone that goes there. Its infectious.