May 2021 SRA Newsletter
June 1, 2021
 June 2021 Newsletter Here’s some of what’s going on in Strathcona… We’d like to acknowledge all the residents who took advantage of Neighbourhood Small Grant Program, especially Maureen Teahan for organizing the re-painting the Linear Park Labyrinth and Ilka Riemann, Arnt and Val Arntzen for designing and building the amazing free library on the corner of Keefer and Hawks. Also to Roberta Robertson for overseeing the grant program in our area. You can still apply for a grant until November. Click here for more info or e-mail Roberta with questions.   Upcoming Events You can now post events on our website. If you have a community-related event you’d like to post, use this form. The official opening of the MacLean water park has been delayed to June 15 due to upkeep and repairs. The Strathcona Community Centre will be offering limited summer programs for kids, youth and seniors. For more info, check their website or at the front desk. Strathcona Park Update Today, we received news from Donnie Rosa that the last remaining tents on Raymur Ave are now gone. Remediation of the east side of the park continues. It’s been a long, challenging year for our neighbourhood and we look forward to green space being available to everyone. From our perspective, Donnie Rosa, Sandra Singh, BC Housing and their teams have done a remarkable job transitioning campers to more secure housing and beginning the process of restoring the park. Thank you all. The SRA’s focus now is to make the park better than ever. We’re asking the Park Board to commit significant capital funds to transform it into a dynamic urban green space that is inviting to all residents of Strathcona. If you haven’t had a chance yet, please take our survey so we can get your perspective. The survey will be live for another week. Feel free to share it with neighbours who might not be on our mailing list. Planners from the Park Board will join us at our next monthly meeting (June 2, 7-9 PM) to discuss how the process of re-imagining a park works. SCPC Offers Naxolone Training Over the long weekend, there was a possible overdose incident in the neighbourhood. Due to COVID, overdose incidents have risen significantly. According to BC CDC, 1,724 people died from overdose in 2020, compared to 985 in 2019. Our Community Policing Centre has been actively promoting harm reduction within the community, but with this recent incident, we would like to extend our Naloxone training program to Strathcona residents. The training will cover basic information on substances and overdose, signs of overdose, how to prepare and inject Naloxone. We will provide you with a practice kit where you get to practice actually preparing the needle and administrating Naloxone. After the training, we will provide residents with a free kit and certificate of completion, if requested. The training will be roughly an hour and a half. If you’re interested, contact us using this form and we’ll figure out a date, time and location (probably MacLean Park). Community Air Quality Monitoring Project Update The Steering Committee for the Port’s Air Quality Monitoring project met on May 27 to discuss what type of air monitoring equipment to purchase. The hope is to be able to begin actively engaging residents this fall in locating, monitoring, collecting data, and reporting results. To get an idea what that might look like, here’s a link to some case studies of what other communities have done. When the time comes, we’ll send out an e-mail to anyone who expressed interest in being involved. To add your name to the list, e-mail AQProject@strathcona-residents.org. Prior St./Hospital Truck Traffic Thanks to those who sent letters about using Prior St. to route truck traffic from the hospital construction site. Here’s the letter we sent. According to Carol Kong, CoV Transit Engineer, “City staff are working with the New St. Paul’s Hospital to focus construction-related traffic on Terminal Avenue and to minimize construction impacts on the neighborhood. Prior Street is a designated truck route, and is an important route for accessing regional destinations such as Produce Row and the future hospital.” We’ll continue to watch this issue closely. June Meeting/May Meeting Minutes The June SRA Meeting will be held via Zoom on Wednesday, June 2, from 7-9 PM. Here’s the link. An agenda will be sent to all SRA Members next week. As noted above, Park Board planners will be on hand to discuss the big picture on how a park re-design works. Add to Google Calendar. Here’s a link to the minutes from the May 4 meeting and also minutes from the May 10 follow-up discussion with Donnie Rosa and Sandra Singh. Thanks to Caroline for transcribing. Copyright © June 2021, Strathcona Residents Association, All rights reserved. |