Habitat for Humanity store almost ready
Published Thursday June 3rd, 2010
A4
By PATRICK THOMSON
For The Daily Gleaner
Frederictonians will have a new place to shop for building supplies this summer.
Habitat for Humanity Fredericton Area Inc. has set the grand opening of its ReStore for June 12 at noon.
The ReStore will sell new and used building supplies and household items. The profits will be used to build Habitat homes.
The store is located at 125 Whiting Rd. in the Vanier industrial park. MLA Rick Miles and other local dignitaries are expected at the opening.
With items ranging from lighting fixtures, to counter tops, to sinks lining its shelves, the store is nearing completion.
"It's exciting. We're 95 per cent of the way there," said Mike Ross, the director of operations for Habitat for Humanity in the Fredericton area.
While the grand opening is June 12, he said there will probably be a soft opening before.
This means that even as soon as this weekend, people might be able to get a first-hand look at the new store.
The ReStore has more than 370 square metres (4,000 square feet) of space, freshly painted in Habitat for Humanity's blue and green colours. For the first few weeks of operation, the store hours will be 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday to Saturday.
About 50 per cent of items for sale are new. The rest, according to Ross, are "gently used."
The ReStore is still taking donations and items for resale. Donations have come in from a variety of sources. Among the store's shelves, bedside tables from a hotel in Quebec are stacked close to a donation of new coffee tables from Wicker Emporium.
Overseeing the merchandise is manager Andrew Cormier. D.J. Cormier is in charge of customer services.
Ross said dozens of volunteers are still needed to help run the store.
"We need greeters and helpers and people to help with things like cleaning and dusting, because it's important to us that this place has a high level of merchandising. We're not a junk store. We have quality items and we want the place to look good too."
Anyone interested in volunteering or donating items can contact Ross at 474-1520.
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Water consumption continues to drop
Published Thursday June 3rd, 2010
A5
By HEATHER MCLAUGHLIN
[email protected]
Despite the blistering pace of construction in Fredericton, water consumption has dropped year over year since 2005.
"When we look at the trend in water consumption in each and every year, the consumption is off from the year before," said Murray Jamer, the city's engineering and public works director.
The figures were disclosed at a city finance committee meeting Wednesday.
In 2005, 6.7 million cubic metres of water was consumed in the city. In 2006 that dropped to 6.5 million cubic metres. The same pattern has held through to 2009 when consumption was at 6.3 million cubic metres.
"The decrease in consumption comes at a time when we're actually adding more customers and we're seeing a lot of growth in our population," Jamer said.
"We've noticed anecdotally over the years that one of the biggest areas of consumption in Fredericton over the years is people watering their lawns. We've noticed that there doesn't seem to be as much of that. It can even be a dry summer and people still don't seem to be watering their lawns as much."
Jamer said he thinks people are getting the conservation message.
The city has also taken a proactive approach to urging all types of conservation - water and energy - as part of its Green Matters and climate change initiatives, he said.
Coun. Tony Whalen said another factor contributing to reduced water consumption is likely the purchase of modern plumbing fixtures, from low-flow toilets to pressure-reduced shower heads.
"The new toilets now are fairly low-flow and can significantly reduce their consumption," Whalen said.
Jamer said the city's utility isn't likely to recommend reductions in water and sewer rates because the city's water and sewer system always needs to be upgraded.
"We have to make sure we do that in a timely manner," Jamer said.
Some parts of the city's sewer system in the older downtown core, for instance, relies on piping that's been in the ground for decades. The city has recently embarked on a 20-year plan to try to set aside funding to tackle infrastructure.
Finance committee member Coun. Jordan Graham wanted to know if declines in consumption would be significant enough to force a utility rate hike.
Jamer said the utility may review the structure of its rate system, but consumption isn't the sole factor.
"We have costs that are going to be ongoing whether we have any consumption at all. We still have to have a water plant. We still have to have our water and sewer infrastructure," Jamer said. "But what we want to do is more closely tie our variable revenues to our variable costs, so that if revenues, for whatever reason, because of consumption, go down, then we want it to be tied to our variable costs."
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City promises to hold public meetings on parkland
Published Thursday June 3rd, 2010
A5
By HEATHER MCLAUGHLIN
[email protected]
It will likely take close to a year for the City of Fredericton to work its way through a list of 41 pieces of parkland, all but one located in city wards, and hold public meetings on the fate of each before it's sealed.
Community services director Wayne Tallon said his department has a detailed plan on how to handle the touchy topic of disposing of green spaces that may end up being declared surplus and that process will include two public meetings with residents in each neighbourhood.
In some cases, because of development on the green spaces or because of their topography, some park areas will never be suited for anything else but green space, Tallon said.
He said he regrets the way the process of rationalizing parks has unfolded.
Angry residents who want public green spaces protected have deluged city hall with opposition to any rezoning that would rob their neighbourhoods of parkland.
City council responded to those concerns by passing a one-year moratorium on the sale of land designated as parkland.
Tallon said the moratorium will allow his department to push the reset button and start afresh park by park and neighbourhood by neighbourhood, including meetings with residents.
Only one of the properties - 30 Coburn Dr. - has been formally declared surplus and available for sale.
Land at 25 Burnham Ct. was in the queue to go to the planning advisory committee for zoning changes that would allow the city to consider selling pieces to neighbouring land owners and any remaining land for a building lot.
Land at 205 McAdam Ave. had cleared the zoning process, but its sale is now on hold.
Tallon said the reason the three green spaces were en route to the planning advisory committee is that the city realized it couldn't dispose of parkland - even to sell it to a neighbouring landowner - unless the zoning designation matched the zoning on the neighbouring residential land holdings.
The sale of the three pieces that were in progress would have still have had to come to city councillors, Tallon said.
Neighbours near 25 Burnham Ct., a steeply sloped wooded area between Garden Place and Colonial Heights, and those living adjacent to 30 Coburn Dr. on Golf Club Road, both in Ward 12, are determined to protect the wooded green spaces in their communities. Residents emailed, telephoned and wrote to Mayor Brad Woodside and to councillors with their opposition.
Woodside responded by urging councillors to call a halt and begin anew.
The rezoning of 205 McAdam Ave., which would allow the city to sell residential building lots, didn't draw any community concern, but the sale of that parcel is also under the moratorium.
Twenty-seven of the 41 are less than half a hectare and some of them have playground equipment on them. Ten pieces of parkland are undeveloped. Another 14 pieces of land are larger than half a hectare and undeveloped.
"Basically, what the recreation master plan says is go through this assessment exercise. Look at what is there and if it's appropriate. Is there an opportunity to expand an existing site or create a larger site. If it's in a newer type of neighbourhood, maybe our plan is to acquire more land and make it bigger as that particular neighbourhood grows or, if you really don't need it, maybe these properties will be offered to neighbouring property owners or sold," Tallon said.
To assess each park, Tallon will use a six-step process to see what exists, if the demographics of a neighbourhood have changed, are there other parks nearby serving the purpose and look at the characteristics of the property. After that, what is the best use of the land - add to it or get rid of it.
At that point, a report will go to city council with options. After that, there will be a neighbourhood open house to discuss the issue. Following that meeting, another report will be prepared to answer questions and then a second public meeting will be held.
"From that, if everything is positive and the people allow us to rezone the property, then we have to go to planning advisory committee where there's another public consultation process all of its own and then to council and then the final decision. We're not wanting to pull the wool over anybody's eyes. It will be a pretty extensive public consultation process," Tallon said.
He said some of the initial research on the 41 park spaces has identified a few that won't be anything more than they are now.
Sunset Drive has a property a fifth of a hectare designated as park land, but it's a wetland, Tallon said.
Gilridge Park has a temporary park because the subdivision hasn't been developed to its limit. The city has already reserved a larger chunk of land within the northside housing development for a larger park when the subdivision is finished.
Cherry Avenue, on the other hand, has a well-established park space that should remain as it is, Tallon said.
None of the monies generated by the sale of parkland in Fredericton go into general revenue. They have to go back into the land subdivision account only to be used for recreation purposes, Tallon said.
Parkland | In brief
Here's a list of the 41 parkland, or open space properties, the community services department at city hall is reviewing.
Twenty-seven of the 41 are less than half a hectare. They include: Gilridge park; Robinson Drive park; Cherry Avenue park; Neville Street park; Melvin Street park; Lawson Court park; Hillcrest Drive park; McKinley Avenue park; Dewitt Acres park; Charles Avenue park; Timber Lane park; Cambridge Crescent Park; Leeds Drive Park; Woodbridge Street park; Beechwood Crescent Park; Regent Street park; and Islandview Park.
Ten pieces of parkland are undeveloped. They include: Sunset Drive; McLeod Hill Road; Haines Crescent; Hawkins Street; McKnight Street; Linden Crescent; Forbes Street; Mitchell Street; and Smythe Street Green.
Another 14 pieces of land are larger than half a hectare and are undeveloped. They include: Burpee Street; McLeod Hill Road; Gourley park; Irvine Street; MacPherson Street; Campbell Creek; Crocket Street Park A; Elliott Street; Ascot Drive; Woodbridge Street; Pembroke Crescent; the University Avenue Green; Coburn Drive; and Colonial Heights.
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