King Edward Park Community League
Executive Meeting November 8, 2016
Chairperson:
Scott Wylie
Members Present:
Sarah Vilay
Wayne Alexander
Evan Jayes
Alyson Jeffs
Mark Tarley (St James)
Stephanie Fox
Kevin Richtcheid
Nicole Nunes
Alicia Kuzio
Kim Byrnes
Renee Henthorne
Sue Murk
Susan Dack
Michael Francon
Rob Taruly (St James)
Tod Rudge
Tim Guenter
Andrea De Ocampo (U of A student)
Keren Tang
Adam Sheehan
Christopher Henthorne
Meeting Called
to Order:
7:05 pm
Minutes:
Minutes read from October’s meeting.
Treasurers Report:
Not Available
Special Reports:
CRC:
Report submitted and attached.
Green Shack Building at KEP, now has some heavy duty locks, due to homeless
people breaking in. Looking into repurposing the building for another use and will
work on some public engagement. City building with availability for the community
to use.
Tennis:
Still playing. Wrapping things up soon.
Membership:
Trickling in. We get a letter every so often from EFCL with additional memberships.
Rink:
Nothing at this time.
Publicity:
N/A
Casino:
N/A - we won’t have another one until 2018
Building/
Maintenance:
Not available.
Neighborhood
Watch:
Tim was involved in a block meeting with some residents west of 83rd Street. The city
has had a spike in crime in other areas as there is a large police presence
downtown and moving the crime elsewhere.
Keren was part of this meeting as she lives on 77 ave and 83 st. and has noticed
more suspicious activities. The group is advocating for more policing in our
neighborhood and has sent letter to Councilor Nickel in this regard. She came to
the meeting to encourage everyone to talk to neighbors and councilor. They
have a short email to send to in to city they would appreciate more people
sending it in. She wanted to note for us that we are part of the Millwood District for
policing. She would also like to see the community website used as a vehicle for
communicating about crimes in our area.
Neighborhood watch can help you meet your neighbors. Tim would also suggest
an email the city (councilor Nickel) about getting more police presence in our
area could be beneficial.
There was a Community Safety Liason from the city – they look at emerging crime
trends from several areas and try to look into preventative measure and work with
community leagues. She did indicate there has been an increase in crime in other
areas other than downtown. She would suggest reporting every crime so it
becomes data on the map. The more data they have, the more information they
have to work with. She would need the stats on police responses to have a better
idea of what is currently happening in KEP.
Donnan Park:
N/A
Large Hall:
Floor is 90% complete. The wax sealant isn’t complete yet.
Small Hall:
Busy
Old Business:
King Edward Park Gazebo:
The gazebo does not belong to the school. It was put in by us for community use.
The Gingerbread House making event in conjunction with Avonmore requires
some volunteers – for those available.
New Business:
EFCL is looking into doing bulk purchasing of City of Edmonton passes. It is
something we can participate in if we choose. The motion to negotiate with
SOCAN was passed at the last meeting.
The community sand boxes have been removed. If we would like to have sand in
the boxes, we have to pay for it. We will get two boxes back from the city and
we’ll get pricing for the sand. Make sure we have it for our own properties and
look into pricing and logistics as to whether we will supply for community as well.
Kevin R went to the city’s proposed daylighting of Millcreek meeting. Millcreek
currently ends around Connors road and then goes underground. The city is talking
about rerouting the creek overground again back to some semblance of its old
route. Problem is the roads along the way. Doing a feasibility study – hired two
engineering firms and they are putting together options of how it could be done
and costs. Public consultation is on Nov 16th. End game is to submit report to City in
January with costing. There had been talk about adding it to the LRT contract but
it doesn’t look like its going to happen that way. The city is trying to work on the
benefits (ecological and physical) for the community and city.
St James School has closed as an elementary school, and they are currently in the
public engagement process regarding the proposed changes. St James closed in
August and moved students to new St Brendan school. Plan is to repurpose the St.
James school building. They want to move staff members from St. Peter and
another school together in this location.
They have engaged an architect to design building changes to the facade to
help rejuvenate the area. The brick facade remains, new windows to be installed.
Wanted to make sure that it’s beneficial to our community and the district. Public
open house at St. Brendan later in the month on Nov 29th (6-8). Meeting at
Avonmore on Nov 16th. [NOTE: the community consultation was subsequently
changed to Nov 23rd at St James]
Currently the building has 67 parking spaces that are awkwardly placed in the
alley way causing a lot of congestion. They are adding an additional 100 spaces
for a total of 167 spaces. This building won’t have periods of congestion like a
regular school except for a meeting 2 or 3 times a month when they require more
parking than the existing spaces. There are still students but limited capacity –
early childhood. This is Edmonton catholic school budget paying for the changes.
The existing playground is being moved to the new St. Brendan school. The field
will now be 55% parking, keeping the soccer pitch area. Adding some plantings
and greenery as well. Exterior hasn’t been updated for a while. The soccer pitch is
not a regulation pitch. Susan asked if it could be made into a regulation pitch think it is 200 x 80, but not positive. Best case scenario construction would start
summer of 2017. [NOTE: The original plan included 167 parking stalls, but was
subsequently increased to 176]
General consensus in the room is that the increased traffic will be a logistic
nightmare. The proposed parking lot is too big and we would like to see it
decreased. There are concerns about increased road maintenance required as
well as better snow removal. Students walk down the back alley to get to Donnan.
The increased traffic will be a problem along with the students walking.
Requesting notification to residents about any blockage of alley way or access to
their homes/garages. However, it was stated as they are staying with the current
zoning for this area, and no variance is required, they will not be doing that as they
are not required to. [NOTE: in conjuction with the change in community
consultation location, the ECSD also mailed out a handbill to all King Edward Park
and Avonmore community league residents]
Evan J. wanted to know if the community league has someone involved in
projects with research and options to be put forth to planning groups.
Volunteering to helping in this capacity. (Scott sent mature overlay to him). Can
possibly add him as a Civics person come our AGM in May.
Adam is currently a planner on the mature overlay review with the City and is
willing to help in that capacity as well.
Avonmore and Hazeldean have a Civics person in the league. Susan is offering to
connect them with Evan and Adam.
Donnan school/KEP playground: The school would like to remove the large bowl
swings. And put in a “safer piece of equipment”. New Principal (Corrie) would like
to engage with the community. We need to find out who owns the swings.
As we paid for the swings, we would like to not see that resource wasted. If being
replaced, perhaps we can move them to Maude Bell park in east King Edward.
There was an agreement signed when the swings were put in (between the school
and city – and possibly the community league) saying the school would take care
of the maintenance on these swings. Currently, both the school and the City are
unable to find a copy of the contract.
Meeting Adjourned:
9:15 pm
Next Meeting: December 13, 2016