How did local celebrities celebrate Canada Day in Bells Corners?
Kanata resident Andy Wang went door-to-door in Bellwood.
Jonnel peddled his pricey meats and asked to see your utility bills.
Don Robertson went riding in the bike parade down the strip.
Janice Alexander Richard raised funds for poor homeless kitties and told us what she and Don had for breakfast.
Lisa MacLeod wore her
Tristan Rocks
t-shirt at a tractor pull in Carleton Place, with Jordan Mitchell Blair Milks assigned the tweeting duties.
Team Tristan hawked $20 t-shirts along the strip.
Free Canada Day rides on the Bells Corners bike-taxi!
Free snacks in the Beer Store plaza!
Free cheese at the LCBO!
Free movies at Videoflicks!
You’ll need a VCR.
Free fireworks in your neighbourhood park at 4 a.m!
Free heat!
Free protein powder courtesy of Councillor Jody Mitic!
Free doughnuts courtesy of Councillor Rick Chiarelli!
D.A. Moodie students “study” politics.
Rick often drops in with doughnuts to give a lecture and do some recruiting.
Did Wesley Clover give Team Rick free VIP tickets?
Why is Tom a regular customer at the Butchery?
He likes
kebobs
kebabs.
Crowded sidewalks in the FreshCo plaza – barely room for a wheelchair or a bike-taxi.
There are about 80 Korean War vets in Ottawa.
Few of them like Andy Wang’s “wafer-thin résumé” or Stephen Harper.
Jon Willing, Ottawa Sun:
“Council’s transportation committee Tuesday approved a new design for a cheaper Transitway extension from Bayshore Shopping Centre to Moodie Dr.
The major changes are two signalled at-grade crossings at Holly Acres Rd. and Moodie Dr. The city doesn’t think grade-separated crossings are immediately needed.
Having level crossings instead will save $22 million, bringing the estimated project cost to $41 million. The true cost won’t be known until he city tenders the project.
The Department of National Defence is moving to the old Nortel campus and originally projected 15,000 employees would be relocated. That has been reduced to 8,500, prompting the city to revisit its future bus infrastructure needs.
Fully grade-separated crossings now won’t be needed until after 2031, city staff say.
Then again, if the city finds a way to bring LRT to Kanata sooner — as Kanata South Coun. Allan Hubley hopes — staff would have to explore grade separation.
For now, the Transitway extension will mean OC Transpo buses won’t have to run on Hwy. 417 in that stretch. The Transitway extension will run parallel to the highway.
Residents who live in a community north of the highway worry about the bus noise, especially from a planned bus staging area west of the mall. There will eventually be a bus-train transfer point at the mall when the city extends LRT to Bayshore in 2023.
The city hopes to have the Transitway extension done in 2017.
Council needs to sign off on the new design July 8.”
Matthew Pearson, Ottawa Citizen:
“Despite objections from residents and community associations, the transportation committee has approved the construction of a level crossing at Holly Acres Road as part of the planned western extension of the Transitway to Moodie Drive.
The revamped plans for extending the Transitway from Bayshore Shopping Centre to Moodie were largely driven by a drop in the number of commuters expected to take the bus to the new Department of National Defence site on Moodie Drive. DND has nearly halved the number of employees it expects to house at the former Nortel campus, from 15,000 to about 8,500.
Such a significant drop in the number people who might use the new Transitway extension prompted the city to re-examine its plan, creating a savings of $22 million.
The new plan, which council will consider on July 8, calls for the Transitway to cross Holly Acres Road at a signal-controlled level intersection, similar to the way the bus route crosses Woodroffe Avenue and Pinecrest Road.
It will continue parallel to Highway 417 on the north side of the highway, then enter the 417 at the Moodie Drive interchange. The new plan requires just one bridge, instead of four, and eliminates the need for a stormwater pumping station at Moodie Drive.
Changes to the plan were panned by both the Creekside and Crystal Bay/Lakeview community associations.
Creekside’s president Jennifer Smith told the committee she doesn’t believe the rationale for a bridge over Holly Acres Road has changed, despite the lower numbers projected at DND. She’s also worried about increased noise levels and bus traffic, as well as the location of a proposed bus staging area at Bayshore station.
Smith asked the committee to “take a hard second look at our concerns.”
She also pushed for a commitment that sound barriers will be installed to reduce the noise for residents along Corkstown Road and in Lakeview Park.
Ziad Ghadban, who’s overseeing the project, said the city has reached a draft agreement with the Ministry of Transportation that would see barriers installed along the 417 to the east and west of Holly Acres.
Bay Coun. Mark Taylor accepted the plan for an at-grade crossing, but asked staff to explore the possibility of building the bridge as soon as possible, perhaps as part of the phase two expansion of light rail, which the finance committee approved Monday.
“That’s what the community would like to have,” Taylor said.
Such a project may make sense, Taylor added, if Kanata South Coun. Allan Hubley’s request for staff to explore the feasibility of bringing LRT to Kanata before 2031 gathers steam. Hubley’s motion was approved unanimously by the finance committee and will be considered by council on July 8.
If the proposed level crossing gets the OK from council, and approval from the Ministry of Transportation and the National Capital Commission, work could begin this year and be ready for use by late 2017.”