2) K&P Trail – Exciting Updates
3) Dry Stone Wall Festival Barriefield, Sat, Sept 30 – Sun Oct 1
4) Wildflower seeds in Doug Fluhrer Park for bees, birds and butterflies?
5) Tannery News
6) Belle Island News
7) Belle Park News
8) Jay Patry’s Marine Museum Site Proposal
9) Six reasons not to clean up your garden this fall
10) Wonderful Accolade for our ON THE WALL Street Art Festival
1) TURTLE PARTY! FINAL CALL! Come! So much interesting stuff to discuss!
What: Fun FKIH social get-together as well as learning about our turtle projects, past and future.
Contributions to a pot luck appreciated but not essential.
Where: Frontenac Village Party Room (Signs visible upon arrival. Wheelchair Accessible – provided you are OK with one small step to manoeuvre from basement garage to corridor to party room and your wheelchair is not wider than 33 inches)
Directions: To get to the garage entry to Frontenac Village Condo go as far north as possible on King to the cul-de-sac. That is the entry to the parking garage. Limited parking available. Otherwise park nearby. Signs indicating how to get to the party room will be at garage entry.
When: 5-7 pm
Contact: Mary Farrar, inverarymary@yahoo.com
If you are free to help set up at 4 pm, the help would be appreciated.
2) K&P Trail – Exciting Updates!!!
a) Permissions have finally been received to allow for paving of the section of trail going west from Division to Dalton. Work should begin any day now.
b) Signage issues are ongoing but the city is working on it
c) A lot of people have been asking why the gates have been removed.
According to Damon Wells in the city’s Public Works Department –
“The gates were removed by the trail extension contractor to be ‘refinished’ and then reinstalled.”
d) Interesting alternative option for K&P alignment at Division and John Counter Blvd!!!
We have been working hard promoting the idea of a pedestrian and cycling overpass (over John Counter Blvd. and the railway to be built east of Division). Over the course of the summer, we shared our thoughts with members of the original K&P Trail group, as well as several councilors and staff members. Most recently we met with Mary Rita Holland, Councilor for the area, and with Luke Follwell, Director of Recreation and Leisure to discuss the idea onsite.
Such an overpass would serve several purposes:
a) improve the current K&P Trail around the Division and John Counter Blvd intersection,
b) make this section of the trail wheelchair accessible,
c) provide a safe connection for Rideau Heights students to get to the new high school,
d) provide a safe connection for Kingscourt residents to get to the new library in Rideau Heights.
Here’s hoping. More anon…..
e) Additional turtle basking log installations further south along the Doug Fluhrer Park shoreline! Should happen later this week. Yey!
3) Dry Stone Wall Festival in Barriefield
Fun weekend ahead! In addition to stone shaping and stone carving demonstrations and the actual reconstruction of the stone walls which flank the entrance to St. Mark’s Anglican Church, there will be tours of St. Mark’s Church, tours of the Barriefield Rock Garden, displays at the Schools Museum, self-guided tours of the oldest heritage district in the province, food vendors, and so on. There will be lots to see and do, and it is all free to the public. A special note to people with kids or grandkids – there will be a free Children’s Workshop on building dry stone walls.
If you know of anyone who might be interested in learning how to do this old and wonderful craft, have them go to the Dry Stone Canada website, and sign up for the workshop. Here is the link: http://drystonecanada.com/
4) Wildflower seeds in Doug Fluhrer Park for bees, birds and butterflies
How about throwing down a few wild flower seeds in Doug Fluhrer Park to attract birds, bees and butterflies when you are out for a walk or taking your dog for a stroll. In the spring we plan on erecting one bird house, one bee house and one butterfly house – courtesy of Lee Valley and C3. More anon…
Some suggestions for butterflies (some wild, some garden):
Alyssum, Aster, Bee Balm, Dwarf Butterfly Bush, Calendula, Cosmos, Daylily, Delphinium, Dianthus, Fennel, Goldenrod, Hollyhock, Lavender, Liatris, Marigold, Musk Mallow, Nasturtium, Oregano, Phlox, Purple Coneflower, Queen Anne’s Lace, Sage, Scabiosa, Shasta Daisy, Stonecrop, Verbena, Yarrow, Zinnia
Some suggestions for songbirds (some wild, some garden):
Asters, Black-eyed Susans, Blanket Flower, Butterfly Weed, Coneflowers, Coreopsis, Cosmos, Liatris, Maridolds, Poppies, Sunflowers, Zinnias.
Some suggestions for bees (some wild, some garden):
Early: Cranberry, Crocus, Foxglove, Heliotrope
Mid Season: Chives Dahlia, Hyssop, Lavender
Late: Coneflower, Cornflower, Cosmos, Goldenrod
5) Tannery News
At Council’s Sept 19 meeting, Council agreed to award developer, Jay Patry, a maximum of $20,000 for an Initial Study Grant for the former Davis Tannery at 2 River Street. This maximum will be paid to Jay Patry upon completion of the required studies and reports in a manner satisfactory to the City’s Environmental Director. This is to be done under the City’s Community Improvement Plan – Brownfields Project Area 1A.
More info?
https://www.cityofkingston.ca/
This is the beginning of a projected massive development in the Tannery.
Developer, Jay Patry, is expected to take ownership of the property this November.
We need to remain vigilant about the possibility of the Wellington St. Extension rearing its head again. More anon…..
6) Belle Island News
A group of dedicated Indigenous people and allies called the Seventh Generation Coalition spent the best part of Sat Sept 9 devoted to cleaning up Belle Island. It is a sacred burial ground. Occupants of two tents took their tents down and left willingly with all of their stuff. A third was confiscated. Garbage was picked up by the 23 hard working volunteers and was later picked up by police. For further information and to see pics, check out the Seventh Generation Coalition on Facebook.
Ongoing vigilance is necessary to prevent further encroachment by campers. Travis Canadien and Hilbert Buist of the Seventh Generation Coalition are meeting with Adam McCluskey of city staff on Friday. Thanks so much to both of them for their ongoing leadership on this important issue.
FYI: Here is an exerpt about the burials found on Belle Island.
http://lowerburialground.ca/
“The burial ground on Belle Island is approximately 1000 years old. Although a hunting and fishing camp was known and had been archaeologically investigated, the burials were unknown until 1988. As part of the City’s archaeological master plan, the Cataraqui Archaeological Research Foundation tested parts of Belle Island. When Kingston’s Parks and Recreation Department bulldozed a nearby section of the shore to make a new beach for a day camp, it went through an area containing at least two human burials. Subsequent work in 1990 uncovered 7 burials: a young adult male in his 20s, two older males between 40 and 50, one of whom died as a result of a bone projectile point impacting the chest area, an adult female, an infant of 2-3 years, an infant of 2½ years, and a child of 3-4 years. All were re-interred close to the original location in 2000.”
7) Belle Park Update
At the Sept 19 Council meeting, Council passed a motion with the following recommendations:
“That Council direct staff to eliminate the operations and maintenance of the 9-hole golf course at Belle Park at the end of the 2017 season and continue to operate the driving range and practice putting/chipping green functions, and
That Council direct staff to incorporate the reduction in golf operations as described in Report Number 17-249 for the purpose of the 2018 operational budget process, and
That Council direct staff to initiate discussions with the Kingston Panthers Rugby Club to explore partnership models for Belle Park and to report back to Council, and
That Council direct staff to initiate discussions with the Kingston Pickleball Association to explore partnership models for Belle Park and to report back to Council, and
That Council direct staff to undertake a master planning exercise that includes the recommendations as described in Report Number 17-249.”
Delegations spoke at the Council meeting in favour of Rugby, Pickleball and Golf and of leaving Belle Park completely natural. Most eloquent, in my view, were Mary Louise Dickson who advocated for leaving the park as a totally natural space and Ted Hsu, who spoke about how much the golf course has meant to his dad.
It should be noted that any recommendations will come back to Council for approval.
It should also be noted that golf may still be an option either in the form of a 5-6 hole course or a Pitch and Putt.
From the Friends of Kingston Inner Harbour perspective, leaving the shoreline alone in order to protect turtles and other species is of utmost importance.
More info? https://www.cityofkingston.
8) Jay Patry’s Marine Museum Site proposal
For those of you who were unable to attend the Planning meeting where this was discussed I personally found it genuinely depressing for a number of reasons – most particularly the proponent actually suggesting that a 20 storey building was in keeping with the heritage of the area. Decide for yourselves.
Here was the announcement in the Kingston Whig Standard:
” 55 Ontario St. – IBI Group – D35-003-2017 Applications for Official Plan and Zoning Bylaw amendments propose the adaptive re-use of the Dry Dock and Pump House Complex located at 55 Ontario St. and construction of a 20-storey residential building with 292 dwelling units at 5 Lower Union St. The applications propose an increase in existing height and density provisions for the subject properties. Through this public meeting process, staff is also seeking community input on potential community benefits related to the proposed development that might be requested from the applicant.”
It is too complicated to summarize what happened in the three hour meeting but if you are interested contact the city’s planning department, Frontenac Heritage Foundation, and Kathleen O’Hara – kathleenohara@yahoo.com for further information. Kathleen is collecting signatures for a petition against the proposal. Over 1000 people have signed so far.
9) Six reasons not to clean up your garden this fall
http://savvygardening.com/6-
10) Lovely accolade for our ON THE WALL street art festival.
Thanks SO much Brian and Melody!
They sent the following letter to Kingston’s Mayor, Bryan Paterson, about Douglas R. Fluhrer Park and our ON THE WALL street art festival.
“Good morning. We hope you had a fantastic week so far!
In regards to several articles we’ve read lately including one about the Wellington Street extension, we are writing a brief note to show our extensive support for the beautifully unique space which is Doug Fluhrer Park.
We relocated to Kingston in December of 2016 and continue to explore and bask in this wonderful city. A perfect choice we indeed did make! Among other things, we are very active humanitarians and run our own non-profit organization which includes self-funded efforts such as sponsoring multiple refugees families to Canada, working in orphanages in many different countries serving the world’s most vulnerable and starting our own kids camp for underprivileged children in New Brunswick. We were also happy to have the Whig write an article about our Big 150 sign for Canada’s birthday celebrations this past year which helped us meet hundreds and hundreds of new friends!!
Upon stumbling across Doug Fluhrer park a month ago while showing visitors our new hometown, we must say we were all so impressed and inspired by the On The Wall paintings in process. Having traveled to approximately 30 countries, although we’ve seen many great examples of citizens trying to brighten up their community, never have we seen such a wonderful exhibit as Inner-Harbour’s On The Wall!! For the many people that haven’t had the privilege to see the world like we have, they will not appreciate how uniquely beautiful The Wall and the surrounding park is.
That weekend we toured our visiting, retired friends to the Kingston Pen, Fort Henry, St Marys Cathedral, Kingston Blues Festival, Confederation Park, the farmers market and Wolfe Island, to name just a few things, and their favourite part of all of our weekend was…. On The Wall and Doug Fluhrer Park! We had to return Sunday afternoon one last time for them to enjoy it again!
Since that weekend, we’ve welcomed three international college students to our home from Mexico and China. Once again, same visits to Kingston’s great tourist attractions led to the same impressed reaction to Doug Fluhrer Park. Last weekend we showed a couple artists visiting for the Limestone Tattoo Festival. Same response when they saw The Wall…WOW! From an international 18 year-old Chinese student to the middle-aged artist to the retired farmers from south-western Ontario, all of them were the utmost impressed with D.F. Park. With its water, The Wall, the view across towards RMC and Fort Henry, the green space and the beginning of the K&P Trail, Doug Fluhrer Park truly has everything needed to start and finish a complete conversation on the City of Kingston!
We’ve been in touch with the Friends of Inner Harbour to express our gratitude for the great job they’ve done, who were then able to put us in touch with all of the talented artists who helped beautify The Wall. With their help, we are now organizing an event where we will commission 6-8 of these artists for them to paint 4ft x 4ft canvasses that we’ll display on our fence to brighten up people’s days as they walk through Dunham Park in Kingston’s Westend. A great example of leveraging off the positive and productive hard work from one part of the city to reproduce the same type of inspiration on the far end of the city!!
So in closing, we just wanted to express our support for Doug Fluhrer Park as it is a gem that many other world cities would be proud to have within their limits. We believe any change that detracts from its current use would be a large mistake by Kingston – culturally, environmentally, spiritually and economically. Instead, we would highly recommend the City continue to find ways to support and promote the admirable direction the Park has taken over the past number of years with the input from those who helped get it there!
From a humanitarian stand-point, we often find ourselves in conflict with many government’s propensity to make decisions based on capitalism and economic measures and it’s unfortunate that more over-developed nations, such as ours, always feel the need to include this in their decision making process. When we think of any proposed alternative uses of Doug Fluhrer Park, the quote from Alanis Obomsawin, a Canadian Abenaki Native American filmmaker, comes to mind: “When the last tree is cut, the last fish is caught, and the last river is polluted; when to breathe the air is sickening, you will realize, too late, that wealth is not in bank accounts and that you can’t eat money.”
Please feel free to contact us should you want anymore positive feedback and thanks very much for your time!
Cheers to a great rest of the week!!
Brian J. Melady and Vicki Powers
M-Powers Life
Once again, thank you so much if you managed to read this to the end.
Much appreciated.
Cheers,
Mary Farrar, President, Friends of Kingston Inner Harbour