Embellissement VANIER Beautification
Tuesday, May 21, 2013Le Centre Francophone
270 Marier Av.
6:30 pm to 8 pm / Marguerite Beaulieu / Co-chair
Tina Delaney / Co-chair
www.togetherforvanier.com - www.ensemblepourvanier.com
MINUTES
Attendance: Marguerite Beaulieu, Tina Delaney, Lucie Marleau, Sheila Paterson, Suzan Proulx, Marthe Joanisse, Lynne Zeitouni, France Boies, Anne Villeneuve, Geoff Derry, Francine Demers, Nicole Li (recorder)
1. Welcome and Introductions
Marguerite welcomed everyone
Special welcome to Francine Demers
2. Approval of Minutes from April 16, 2013
Approved
3. Approval of Agenda
Approved
4. News from Co-chairs:
· Vélo-Fest (poster)
o Cycling festival taking place June 2nd
· Donation from CSCV for the “Adopt-a-Bin” and “Adopt-a-Flower Box” initiatives
o All the perennials are donations
o Gave $500 to buy bins and flowers
o Garbage program working well – city provides garbage bags
o Found garbage bins for purchase at a reasonable cost
§ Home depot for $12.99 - $5 off per bin as long as at least 12 are purchased
o Thank you letter written to CSCV on behalf of EVB
· Marguerite’s resignation as co-chair in June. Nominations at the September meeting, elections at the October meeting
o Marguerite wants to spend more time away from Ottawa during the winter
o Members to begin thinking about potential co-chairs
5. Follow-up to previous agenda items:
· Awesome project (article)
o In the EMC
o Haven’t heard back from the project about the status of the application
o Would be useful for the 100th and 50th anniversary celebrations
· Spring Clean Up (Marguerite and Tina)
o Over 120 people registered with Beautification and the VCA
o 412 people registered in Vanier for the 2 week period
o Article in Perspectives Vanier
o CSCV donated money for lunch; Hearty Bakery donated desserts and apologized for not being there to help clean
o Councillor Fleury and his office assisted in the clean up as well
o Should suggest to Tim Horton’s to put a garbage can at the bus stop on Montreal Rd.; they sponsor the event but don’t promote it in their stores
o Need to create an inventory of bus shelters in Vanier and make a request to the city for garbage cans
· Jane’s Talk and Walk (Tina)
o Jane’s Talk
§ Video from the CPO Community Safety Awards shown
§ Presentations from Vanier
§ Encompassed where we are, where we’re going and what we’re doing (arts registry, Festival of Nations, Winter Carnival, Vélo-fest, etc.)
o Jane’s Walk (Museoparc) began at St. Charles Church – looked at the murals at the flower shop on Marier and at El Meson
§ Approximately 30 participants
o Jane’s Walk (BVA) – Vanier residents talked about the Governer General’s house; visited the mural at the Metro parking lot; ended at St. Charles Church/Bridgehead
§ Approximately 56 participants
· Community and Protective Services Committee, re: abandoned properties initiative (Marguerite)
o Attended by Sheila and Marguerite, who spoke in favour of the initiative and the importance of community beautification
o City councillors and the mayor gave many compliments to EVB that day
· Food cost for creton and baguette at the St-Jean Festival (Marguerite)
o Have not priced it out yet, but will do a sample batch
o Planning to ask La Maison Baguette if they’ll donate baguette
o Festival occurring on June 22th from noon to midnight
§ Food will be sold from noon until 4, but entertainment will go on all night, ending in a bonfire at midnight (the fire of joy)
§ 30% of food profits go to the day’s entertainment and the rest is for EVB
o Will sell buttons and distribute pamphlets at the event
o Volunteers needed
· Gamman House
o Had a meeting last Thursday, May 16th
o Project unfortunately doesn’t meet the qualifications for the Capital Grant Program, which is mostly concerned with parks. The Gamman House garden wasn’t thought to serve the general population, as they’re looking for projects that serve children and families.
o Advised to approach the City in 2 years to reassess the operation of the Gamman House and potentially reconsider the garden plan
§ Having more problems renting these spaces than anticipated
o No further city grants available
o There was a lot of blame being assigned – the City thought that the presentation made to Beautification shouldn’t have taken place because they weren’t given permission to work on the Gamman House. However, Tina and the rest of the Gamman House crew did their own due diligence re: the application in terms of meeting with the City prior to submission
o Design can be adapted to other spaces
o City is not looking seriously at Optimiste Park because they don’t think there’s enough money being put into it to make a significant change
§ Encouraged to fundraise, reassess the conditions of the park in 2 years and reapply; donations need to be tripled
· Mac Chaput Award (Tina) – June 10th ceremony, 5:30 p.m.
o Knights of Columbus Hall at 260 MacArthur
o Free buffet style dinner will be served
o Tina and Dan nominated Marguerite and Mike Bulthuis gave a wonderful support letter
o Marguerite has accepted the nomination and considered it one more avenue to promote EVB; if she receives the award, she will do so on behalf of EVB
o VCA has nominated RoseAnne Leonard
o Those who wish to attend should email Tina so that EVB members can be signed up as a group
6. New business:
· Cleaning Vanier Parkway with our City Councillor, Saturday, June 15th
o During the spring cleanup, 16 bags of garbage were picked up on Vanier Parkway between MacArthur and Montreal
o Councillor Fleury and his office are soliciting whoever in Vanier wants to help
o More information to be provided when Nathaniel returns from holidays
· EVB’s flower boxes and sites (hand out) adoptees and care-givers required
o Problems with watering last year – the summer was dry and there seemed to be issues with getting the necessary water to the boxes
o Watering containers can be given to individuals who don’t have them
o Suzan agreed to care for #2 – Montreal next to BIA and #14 – Albert and Montreal; Marthe agreed to care for #16 – Ste Anne and Montfort
§ #3 – Montreal and Marier being removed by the City
o Anne to look into plants for the community gardens/flower boxes – can get inexpensively through the school
o Might be useful to stake signs in flower boxes to encourage adoption – i.e.”being taken care of by…”
7. Community Partners:
· Association communautaire de Vanier (ACV) / Vanier Community Association (VCA)
o Julia resigning
o AGM at the Fire Hall on Beechwood – Wednesday, June 19th
§ Changed their date because it conflicted with EVB’s meeting
§ Will be voting on changes to the City bylaws re: community associations at the AGM
§ Discussion about RoseAnne and Christina doing more social activities in the community
§ Presentation on designing and setting up bike paths and user friendly spaces
· Bureau du Conseiller Mathieu Fleury / Councillor Mathieu Fleury’s office
· Centre des services communautaires de Vanier (CSCV) / Vanier Community Service Centre (VCSC)
o Removing the benches around Madelline Meilleur’s office as they have been problematic; no plans as of yet to replace them with anything
§ Members suggested flower boxes, sculptures (can be borrowed from the City), community bulletin board (was part of the VCA grant)
o Stefan had his first coffee house on May 9th re: organizing a community event, which was quite successful
o Received funding for a community garden at the food bank
§ There will be 14 boxes, maybe 12 depending on layout; will be along the white fence of Partage Vanier
§ Will be the first food bank to grow their own food
§ Technical school on Donald may be able to build the boxes
8. Other:
· Geoff’s website for artists; mixed media artist: geoffderry.ca
· Should have portable toilets in public parks, particularly ones that have activities – they exist in parks in Orleans
· Marguerite met with Councillor Fleury and two people from the BIA to discuss how the BIA can work better with residents of Vanier
o BIA focused on beautifying main intersections (on Montreal, MacArthur, Beechwood) and wondering if EVB and residents would be interested in maintaining intersections as long as the BIA paid for them
o Beautification endorses the proposal to beautify these intersections
· Geoff suggested an inter-community food growing competition
o Encouraged to talk to community garden and organizations like Hidden Harvest
9. Next meeting:
· Short business meeting followed by social: Tuesday, June 18, 6:30 p.m., In the garden, 155 Duford Street
· Refreshments: Pot Luck
Don’t forget your receipts! **important to submit them even when using the CSCV donated gift card**