or those of you who read my last column, Leo Doyle and I did manage to make a presentation to the city's Transportation Committee on March 5. I think we managed to change a few minds because in the end the committee did agree to provide funding to Bank Street reconstruction for this year, largely as a result of Councillor Clive Doucet's decision to move about $3 million of funds allocated to re-pave streets in the Glebe to the Bank Street project. The paving projects had been put in by city staff with no community consultation and included no streetscaping initiatives.
The money allocated will not be enough to finish the project this year as its total cost will be about $5.2 million, but it should ensure that at least half of the work will be done this year. Just how the work will be broken down will depend on technical and engineering considerations, but after discussing the issue with board members I think we would prefer the northern half of Bank Street (that's the section from the bridge over the canal to somewhere south of the Belmont-Glen intersection) to be done first as it is the area with the heaviest pedestrian traffic and the area where there are the greatest safety concerns, especially around Hopewell Public School.
While some of us may be disappointed that the project will not be completed in a single year, breaking it into two parts may be of some help to our merchants as it may reduce the extent of the disruption along the street and also should reduce the amount of time the street is actually under construction each year. There should be a second open house sometime next month or so to show the final designs, which incorporate the comments made at the open house in December and work done by the working group since then. A final public hearing will be then held at the Transportation Committee where the project should get its final approval.
As most of you will know by now, the Ottawa-Carleton Catholic School Board has voted to close St. Margaret Mary School at the end of this school year. While this closure will result in a net loss of educational facilities in the community, it is also going to have other negative impacts as well. Bytown Daycare, which has been an institution in the community for 22 years, is housed at the school. With the closure of St. Margaret Mary, it faces a real challenge in finding alternative space in the community.
At its last meeting, the board voted to asked the Catholic School Board to provide some special consideration to Bytown Daycare to allow it to stay at the school for the next year so that it can have the time to find alternative accommodation.
At the same meeting, a working group of board and community association members was charged with looking at the alternative community uses of the school building, and what the financial issues might be.
The working group will provide a preliminary report at the next board meeting in April. The Catholic School Board is required to provide other school boards, and then other public bodies in the city, with an opportunity to purchase the property before it is disposed of on the open market. Given there is a significant lack of community facilities in Old Ottawa South, it would be a shame to see the school lost to a residential development.
What makes OSCA special is that most of the programs and services it runs are provided by local volunteers. They are a dedicated and innovative bunch. One example is the crew headed by Gary Lum which looks after the outdoor skating rink at Windsor Park. They are responsible for flooding the rink, clearing it of snow and making sure the ice surface is in tip top shape. Given that we have not had the best winter for maintaining an outdoor skating rink, I'm particularly glad to tell you Gary's team has just won an award from the city for the quality of their ice surface and for their maintenance work in general. Great work guys and a heartfelt vote of thanks from the community for a job well done!
Just a reminder that registration for the spring sports program will take place on Saturday, April 6 in the morning. This year the program committee is looking at reinvigorating the children's soccer program and will be hiring a new co-ordinator. Their goal is to make our soccer program one of the best in the city.