Station 20 hits fundraising milestone
MVA goes green
Rod Nickel, The StarPhoenix
Published: Friday, November 28, 2008
A $500,000 donation from an anonymous financial institution has pushed Station 20 West past the $1-million mark.
The two-storey building planned for 20th Street between avenues L and K needs to raise $3 million in total by February. Station 20 also has loan guarantees in place and can take out a mortgage, so construction will start in May even if it doesn't raise all its money ahead of time, project manager Faith Bodnar said.
It's expected to open in late fall.
That's a lot of momentum for a project thought to have been dealt a knockout blow when the Sask. Party government pulled an $8-million commitment in March.
"It's just really phenomenal," Bodnar said. "It's a very encouraging story and rings true with people in the city."
The first floor will house a grocery store, a cafe and a community kitchen available for cooking classes. The second floor will be office space to house CHEP Good Food Inc., Quint Development Corp., the Elizabeth Fry Society, a University of Saskatchewan community outreach and research centre, agricultural non-profit group Heifer International and, if there's room, some health services from the Saskatoon Health Region.
Station 20 has just released an artist's rendering of its scaled-down design by architect Charles Olfert. The building and grounds will seek LEED gold status.
"The building still embodies the spirit of Station 20 West," Bodnar said.
"This is so much more than a building. It's a movement for social justice."
MVA down to earth
You would expect the home of an organization dedicated to conservation to publicly display its environmental principles.
The proposed Meewasin Valley Authority centre appears to be on track to do just that.
The conceptual design, approved Tuesday by the MVA board, includes one, and maybe two, green roofs, said CEO Susan Lamb.
Decisions on building materials haven't been made, but the MVA is considering using recycled materials, perhaps from an old barn or elevator, she said. Tyndall stone is another possibility.
Source - Friday, November 28th Star Phoenix
And how's this for getting back to the land?
Meewasin is considering building a long interior wall out of rammed earth, recycled wood or the elms that will be cut down at the Lake Placid site across the street. Rammed Earth walls, an age-old building method, are just what they sound like -- dirt rammed together with cement to make a wall.
The roof on the two-storey portion of the building will function as an observation deck to Friendship Park and the river.
The new 2,580-square-metre building is designed by Moriyama Teshima and local architects March Schaffel.
Cost is estimated at $12.7 million. The interpretive centre would have galleries focused on Saskatoon's past, present and future, water issues, sustainability and climate change, plus business offices for Meewasin and like-minded groups Partners for Sask. River Basin and Roadmap 2020.
Meewasin is aiming for LEED gold status and is seeking federal funding.
Here come bendy buses
You know them as accordion buses. Or bendy-buses, banana buses or slinky buses.
Whatever you call them -- they're officially known as articulated buses -- four of them will be roaming Saskatoon streets next year. The buses are included in the draft 2009 capital budget and will serve the neighbourhoods around the university that use Transit heavily.
Acting transit manager Mitch Riabko said the buses have a big upside, such as fitting in more riders on high-use routes and the environmental benefits of running fewer buses.
An articulated bus is roughly the length of a conventional bus plus half, or about 60 feet long altogether. They can seat 60-66 people, compared with 37 on a conventional bus.
"We're all really excited to move that way," he said.
The bendy-buses cost $600,000, compared to $400,000 for a conventional bus.
Riabko said he's been assured that the longer buses can make all the corners that a conventional bus would make.
The actual bus fleet will remain at 132 buses.
The four new articulated buses and four new conventional buses will replace older models.
Historic shed survives
The 100-year-old shed in Victoria Park, which once was owned by the city gardener, may escape demolition after all.
City administration now recommends the shed be carefully dismantled, not demolished.
If city council adopts the recommendation Monday, the concrete blocks will be preserved, but other materials, like the roof, can't be reused, said Dylan Czarnecki, open space consultant for the city.
Public consultation will determine whether the shed is rebuilt or remembered in another way when the city redesigns the city gardener's site next year.
Richards' last budget
Drafting a capital budget takes most of a year. There's never enough money. There are always projects left on the shelf. And then, when administration has pulled off the best balancing act it can, there's the wise guys in the media, on city council and in the general public to poke holes in it.
The 20th and final capital budget presided over by retiring city manager Phil Richards was released Wednesday. As dry as these things can be -- and they can be Gobi Desert dry -- there was a note of nostalgia in Richards' voice afterwards.
Asked if he would miss the budgeting process and would be tempted to draft his own alternative budget next year, just for kicks, Richards looked thoughtful. "Maybe I'll call a press conference and be the only one there." At least there would be no smart-alecky questions.
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© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2008
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Province to order more water testing
Rod Nickel, The StarPhoenix
Published: Friday, November 28, 2008
The provincial government is preparing to introduce a tough new set of lead testing standards that will require the cities of
Saskatoon and Regina to dramatically expand drinking water testing.
The permits Saskatchewan Environment issues to the two big cities currently require lead testing only once every six months at a single site. That test can even take place at the water treatment plant itself, which wouldn't gauge whether water is picking up lead as it moves through the distribution system.
But the new standards the ministry hopes to introduce, which are being finalized coincidentally as two home-owners raise lead concerns, will require Saskatoon and Regina to test at 100 different sites next year, said Sam Ferris, director of drinking water quality for Sask. Environment. Depending on what they find, the requirements for testing in subsequent years increases or decreases, Ferris said.
Officials from the ministries of Environment and Health will meet next week to discuss the standards, which are based on work by a federal-provincial committee charged with ensuring safe drinking water. It's up to each province to decide when or if they apply the new standards.
Nova Scotia, Ontario and Quebec have already introduced requirements for additional testing in some cities, Ferris said.
"We're going to be working with Health to implement that across the province basically to push municipalities to get on the ball here and start testing more for lead in the distribution system, in homes, in schools and in the office building where it matters the most," Ferris said.
The new standards would take effect sometime next year.
Two homeowners, one in Caswell Hill and another in Nutana, asked the city's water chemist this fall to test their drinking water and found lead levels exceeding Health Canada guidelines. The chemist told the Nutana homeowner she should run her water for half an hour to bring down lead levels.
"Frankly, I'm a little surprised about the findings in Saskatoon recently," Ferris said. "We've never really seen a lot of elevated lead levels in the distribution system before. It's a bit of a wake-up call. But we're going to move and get that situation resolved."
The last time the city tested for lead was July 16, Ferris said. The test found two parts per billion, well below the Health Canada threshold of 10 parts per billion. That threshold for safe drinking water isn't changing.
Lead can enter drinking water from lead pipes that connect water mains to homes in older neighbourhoods, from brass fixtures or plumbing in homes soldered with lead.
Ryan Walker, one of the homeowners who went public with concerns, said expanding testing isn't enough.
"Testing 100 sites is a good idea as long as there's a response," he said. "I suspect there's enough evidence out there already that lead lines are unhealthy."
Walker said the province should help cities foot the bill for replacing lead pipes.
Murray Totland, Saskatoon's general manager of infrastructure services, said the city is committed to doing more testing for lead in drinking water in the next while.
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© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2008
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I'm thinking you are going to ace that course. WRT the bendy busses, didn't Ottawa have some big problems with them due to poor traction in snow? I think I recall reading something about it. Maybe they have improved them in some way. Anyway, it is great to see transit actually moving forward with improvements.
The front looks like a tragic 80's 2 storey office building or perhaps a jail. To me it would make sense to make the front a nice curve of glass with some stell accents and maybe horizontal wood slatting somewhere.
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