Garden City - St. Catharines

June 2010
Life’s a beach
Current
The
Garden City
2
St. Catharines grows up with new
Official Plan
3
A publication from the City of St. Catharines
THIRSTY FOR VOLUNTEERS
Got water? Consider offering up your faucets
for the community-wide lead testing program.
The city must take 130 samples of water this
year from homes using municipally treated
H20 to determine the total lead content.
Water samples are needed now from 50
residential homes and five non-residential
buildings constructed before 1990, and 10
hydrants.
An adverse water quality incident doesn’t
mean the drinking water
supply is unsafe, only
that on one occasion, the
limit was exceeded.
Older water service lines,
used to connect a water
meter to the watermain
in houses built prior to
the 1950s, are typically
the source of lead.
Replacing the lead
service line, installing
a NSF-53 water filter or
letting the cold water tap run for five minutes
to flush the lines before drinking the water are
all ways to limit lead exposure.
The province also has a water filter fund, administered by the Region, to help low income
families purchase certified filters for homes
where lead exceedances are found.
The city will replace the lead service pipe on
public property when a lead exceedance is
found and whenever home or business owners replace their portion of the line.
Call Dave Leemet, water quality technician,
at 905.688.5601, ext. 2199 or email dleemet@
stcatharines.ca.
CONSTRUCTION CORNER
Road resurfacing and curb repair will start in
June and last about 10 weeks on:
• Academy Street: St. Paul Street to Church
Street.
• Cole Farm Boulevard: Cambria Drive to
Main Street.
• King Street: Carlisle Street to Church
Street.
• Merritt Street: Townline Road W. to Glendale Avenue.
• Parnell Road: Geneva Street to Vine Street.
• Valerie Drive: Wakelin Terrace and Glendale Avenue.
Watermain and sewer work will begin in July
and continue through the summer:
• Church Street: Ontario Street to King
Street.
• Margery Avenue: Carlton Street to Mohawk Drive.
• Queen Street: King Street to Church
Street.
• Ridgewood Road: Glenridge Avenue to
Highland Avenue.
Road resurfacing and curb repair will start in
July and last about 10 weeks on:
• Ravine Road: Queenston Street to the end.
• Tasker Street: Queenston Street to Seneca
Street.
• Vine Street S.: Queenston Street to Yale
Crescent.
• Yale Crescent: Vine Street South to Berryman Avenue.
DO YOU DRIVE A VEHICLE IN
ST. CATHARINES?
Here are some tips to avoid parking tickets:
• Only the person issued a valid Ontario accessible parking permit may use it to park
in an accessible space (driver or passenger). Unauthorized parking is a $300 fine.
• Parking in a fire route is a $75 fine. Fire
routes are designated for fire trucks and
emergency vehicles.
• Parking on a front lawn is $100 fine.
• Meters and short term parking lots downtown have a three-hour limit to ensure
parking space turnover. The Ontario Street
parking garage is equipped for full day,
pay-on-your-way-out parking.
• Leaving oversized vehicles and unhooked
trailers on St. Catharines roads is a $75
fine.
• Parking too close to a fire hydrant or a
driveway, parking on a boulevard, facing
the wrong way or leaving a vehicle on the
roadway for more than 12 hours at a time
without moving it are all violations carrying a set fine of $24.
• Stopping or parking on or partly over a
sidewalk is a $48 fine.
For more information call 905-688-5601, ext
1429.
Making a splash at Pearson Park
The City of St. Catharines has dived into
building a new aquatics centre and library
branch.
Ground was broken on the Kiwanis
Aquatics Centre May 25 at Lester B.
Pearson Park, making way for a 25-metre
swimming pool and new incarnation of the
Grantham branch of the St. Catharines
Public Library.
The centre will provide residents and
visitors with eight lanes for lap swimming,
a warm water leisure pool for activities
such as aquafit classes, changerooms,
spectator seating, a large book depot for
north end residents and two community
rooms. Add those to the amenities already
at the sprawling Pearson Park, including
soccer fields, tennis courts, a playground
and splash pad, and what the city has is a
new hub of all things recreational for all its
residents.
“That’s the direction of new developments
– that they have a multi-purpose use,” said
Carolyn Askeland, the city’s acting recreation supervisor. “A family can have a child
in an aquatics program. Mom can go to
the library to catch up on her reading. Of
course, it’s in a wonderful park-like setting,
so one child can be playing soccer and
another can be swimming.”
Construction of the nearly 50,000-square
foot structure, designed by Shore Tilbe
Perkins+Will architects, starts this month.
The new aquatics centre and library
branch will be built by Bondfield Construction Company, Ltd.
The entire project will cost $19.6 million,
with the province providing $4.5 million
under the Municipal Infrastructure Investment Initiative.
The Kiwanis Club of St. Catharines is
contributing $500,000 – the largest donation the 75-year-old service club has ever
made to the City.
Lilita Stripnieks, CEO of the St. Catharines Library, said she can’t wait for
the Grantham branch to move from its
cramped quarters at the Grantham Plaza
into the modern, sleek building that will
sit on the corner of Niagara and Carlton
Peter Brown, Kiwanis Club of St. Catharines president, Mayor Brian McMullan, St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley
and Les McDonald, chairman of the St. Catharines Public Library board, break ground for the new Kiwanis
Aquatics Centre and Grantham library branch at Lester B. Pearson Park.
streets.
The branch will spread out over 7,000
square feet, providing room for thousands
of titles, a study area, computer terminals and Wi-Fi capabilities – all to serve
38,000 patrons registered at the Grantham
branch.
“We’re very excited,” Stripnieks said. “The
library has been designed to maximize the
space alloted and provide the best functional layout.”
Aside from the plentiful amenities, the
centre will also make a splash with its
many eco-attributes, including a sloped
roof to collect rainwater to use as greywater in toilets, recycled building components, a reflective roof to keep building
temperatures cooler and glass to allow for
more natural light, reducing the amount of
electricity consumed.
All of those features will help the centre
meet Leadership in Energy and Envi-
ronmental Design silver standards – the
highest green rating achieved by a City
building – when it opens in Fall 2011.
The centre will also be the City’s most
accessible building.
Combined, those features create a true
community facility, Askeland said.
“I’m just so excited when I look at the
drawings,” she said. “I see an array of opportunities. I see young and old swimming
together. I see collaborations and partnerships being developed and definitely
a state-of-the-art environment with new
technology. Beyond the lines of the drawings, I really see a community that is going
to come together and experience what
aquatics has to offer.”
Don’t Forget! The City’s outdoor pools
open July 1. Early bird swimmers can dive
into the pool at Lancaster Park on weekends starting June 11.
Artist renderings of the Kiwanis Aquatics Centre and St. Catharines Public Library -- Grantham Branch
Genie in a smart phone
St. Catharines firm receives funding to develop new smart phone technology
Roland Bissell has found a way to make
his smart phone even smarter.
The president of Convergent Telecom
Inc., a St. Catharines company that provides communications solutions for businesses, has turned his BlackBerry into a
mileage and expense tracking machine.
“My accountant was after me about tangible expense reports,” Bissell said. “Two
years ago, we recognized the opportunity
to leverage the BlackBerry to do more.”
Think calculating expenses, such as
mileage using GPS, converting that data
to a form and consolidating it online.
To do it, Convergent Telecom signed a
licensing agreement with a Dutch company to gain access to two programs,
MyMileageGenie and TheFormsGenie. In
the 18 months since, Bissell and his staff
of 16 have been refining, revamping, and
renaming the programs for Convergent’s
use, and to sell commercially.
This spring, the company, located in
Downtown St. Catharines, received an interest-free loan for $185,250 from the federal government’s Community Adjustment
Fund (CAF). The money will be used to
St. Catharines-based Convergent Telecom received a
loan for $185,250 from the federal government’s Community Adjustment Fund, which the company will
use to market mileage and forms software for smart
phones.
help further refine and market MileageGeniePro and FormsGeniePro, as “Software
as a Service” solutions for BlackBerry to
businesses throughout North America.
Silicon Knights also received money from
the fund. The St. Catharines video game
developer got nearly $4 million to create
a new game that will appeal to a mass
market.
CAF is part of Canada’s Economic Action
Plan, providing $1 billion over two years to
support projects that create and maintain
jobs in communities hit hardest by the
recession.
Bissell said Convergent will also use the
money to develop versions of MileageGeniePro and FormsGeniePro for iPhone users. Other products are also in the works.
“I shouldn’t say we were totally surprised
(to get funding) because we submitted
a pretty confident business plan,” Bissell
said.
They did it with the help of the City of St.
Catharines’ Economic Development and
Tourism Services.
Director David Oakes said the department alerted local businesses to the
program and provided support for funding
applications, including Convergent’s.
Oakes praised the federal government’s
support of private business, which would
otherwise need to rely on banks to access
such funding.
“They looked at it from a job creation
standpoint,” Oakes said. “A lot of banks
don’t look at it from that perspective. They
look at it from a cash flow perspective.”
The Garden City Current is available at www.stcatharines.ca
Page 2
June 2010 June 2010
The Garden City Current
Keeping Port Dalhousie’s
harbour ship shape
The beach at Lakeside Park is the most popular of the city’s three beaches. In the past three years, Lakeside Park has been open an
average 75 per cent of the summer, something that was unheard of just a decade ago.
Just another day at the beach
Pollution Control Plan results in clean beaches
Mark Green isn’t a beach bum, but as the city’s
manager of environmental services, Green likely
knows St. Catharines sandy shores better than any
sun bather or swimmer.
That’s what happens when you oversee staff
tasked with taking daily water samples during the
summer at the city’s trio of beaches: Lakeside Park,
Municipal Beach and Jones Beach.
These days, Green is seeing local beaches enjoy
a bit of a renaissance and his “Beach Closed” signs
gathering a little more dust as the city’s shoreline
becomes a cleaner, safer place to spend a summer
day.
“(The beaches) are heavily, heavily used each nice
day in the summer,” Green said. “There are a lot of
people going there, even if they don’t go swimming.”
Turn the clock back about thirty years and local
beaches had garnered a bad rap after having spent
the early part of the century as popular tourist hot
spots.
In the 1970s, a day at the beach – if a person
dared to go – meant a day sitting in the sand with
no swimming.
Pollution made beaches unsafe and eventually
forced their permanent closure.
“People who were swimming there could become
ill,” Green said.
By the mid-1980s, the City, Region and Ministry of
the Environment joined forces to clean up beaches
with the Pollution Control Plan.
Samples were taken and studies were done to
determine what was fouling the water, the risks to
people and different options to combat the culprits,
which included storm water.
By 1994, local beaches began to open again on a
day-by-day basis.
“Since then, we’ve been working to try to get
beaches open as much as possible. There’s been
slow but steady progress,” Green said.
It’s a process that has been helped along by the
City’s efforts to improve infrastructure that handles
storm water.
In 2007, a wetland was created to filter rainwater
before it leaches into Twelve Mile Creek, removing
phosphorus, nitrogen, ammonium and sediment.
The city has also installed seven combined sewer
overflow tanks to hold storm and wastewater during
rainy episodes until there is enough capacity in the
treatment system to deal with it.
“Anything we can keep out upstream will improve
what’s downstream,” Green said. “We definitely
want to put our resources where they are going to
do the most good.”
Now beaches are open more often. In the past
three years, the beach at Lakeside Park has been
open an average 75 per cent of the summer.
Open beaches aren’t just a beach bum’s dream,
either, Green noted.
“People want to see them open a lot,” he said.
“Even people who don’t go to the beach want to
see them open for swimming because they are
seen as an indicator of the city’s environment.”
Carolyn Askeland tends to avoid
making big plans for Victoria Day
weekend.
That’s because there’s a good
chance her cell phone will ring and
her help will be needed at the Port
Dalhousie Harbour, where Askeland,
the city’s acting recreation supervisor, serves as an enforcement officer
for the Department of Fisheries and
Oceans.
During the kick-off weekend to boating season, it’s inevitable that some
lake farers’ sailor’s knots will have
gotten a little rusty over the winter and
boats will float down the harbour.
Boaters’ confusion over reservations,
what safety equipment needs to be
on board or re-adjusting to the water
conditions keep Askeland, Jennifer
Green, her co-enforcement officer
and acting manager of recreation
services, and the harbour attendants
hopping.
“It’s always a fear the first long weekend in May,” Askeland said after she
and Green rhymed off the gamut of
issues that can ensue.
Though the job titles have changed
– enforcement officers were once
known as the harbour master and
deputy harbour master – the job descriptions haven’t.
“We’re really just landlords of the
harbour for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans,” Green said.
The federal agency owns the
harbour and the surrounding lands,
contributing to the maintenance costs,
approving leases for other harbour
businesses and sharing in the profits.
The city monitors and maintains
the harbour – a job that requires
the co-operation of Recreation and
Community Services, Transportation
and Environmental Services and Fire
Services.
Assisting Green and Askeland are
three harbour attendants who greet
boaters during their stay at the harbour, supplying them with welcome
kits, collecting docking fees and just
being the eyes and ears of the port.
This is Justyna Bleich’s second summer as a harbour attendant.
“I get to interact with the public everyday. I get to work outside. It’s great.
I love coming to work,” Bleich said.
There are other perks to the job.
Askeland and Green carry badges
that they flash when they need to
board boats for inspection.
But everything Green, Askeland and
other city staff do at the harbour is
really about public safety.
That became even more evident
after 2004 when a safety audit led
to the installation of rescue stations
equipped with life preservers, ladders
and signs.
New cleats to keep boats securely
moored were also added and yellow
lines were painted along the pier to
indicate if those taking a stroll along
the stretch are venturing too close to
the edge.
In addition to boosting safety, the investments have also reaped reduced
insurance premiums for the City.
“Obviously public safety has to be
first and foremost but that was a real
pat on the back,” Askeland said.
Trillium Awards seeking artistic and
gardening greatness
Green thumbs, get growing.
Artists, get those creative juices flowing.
It’s time for the City of St. Catharines Trillium
Awards for Excellence in Landscapes, Heritage
Preservation and the Arts, recognizing those who
beautify the community.
For Mike Anderson, the City’s horticultural development technician, that means more time travelling
the scenic routes through St. Catharines to see how
nominated gardens grow.
“As I’m going from one job to another, I take a
detour here and there to see what’s out there and
help narrow down the entries for the judges,” said
Anderson, who spearheads the gardening awards.
Reaping one of the 11 honours recognizing gardens, planters, trees, the eco-conscious and budding green thumbs is no walk in the park.
When the gardening awards started 26 years ago,
about 75 entries were submitted. At its peak in the
90s, it was not unusual to get as many as 600 gardening types putting their green thumbs to the test.
These days, the awards still attract entries well
into the hundreds with the residential garden award
category cultivating the most competition.
“That’s very successful when you consider in the
city there are less than 50,000 addresses,” Anderson said.
Entries are judged by landscape and horticulture
industry professionals.
This marks the fifth year for the arts awards, which
recognize more than the creators behind the canvas.
The arts awards are “a formal acknowledgement
that local artists, organizations and patrons of the
arts have made significant contributions in the community -- we have a lot to be proud of in our arts
community,” said Rebecca Cann, St. Catharines’
cultural planning supervisor.
Past recipients of arts awards in four categories include polka virtuoso Walter Ostanek, prolific young
artist Melanie MacDonald and Niagara Symphony
conductor and composer Laura Thomas.
TRILLIUM AWARDS
CATEGORIES:
Trillium Awards for Excellence in Landscapes,
Heritage Preservation and the Arts honour residents for hoticultural and arts achievements.
The categories include:
• Residential Garden Awards
• Commercial/Industrial Properties
• Container Plantings
• Entranceway Plantings
• Significant Tree Specimen
• Eco Award
• Catalyst Award
• Education Awards
• Emerging Artist
• Established Artist
• Innovation in the Arts Award
• Mayor’s Patron of the Arts Award
A previous winner of a Trillium Award for Excellence in Landscapes.
“When someone has that kind of influence in our
community, it’s really important to acknowledge
how meaningful that contribution is,” Cann said.
Entry forms and rules are available at city facilities and online at www.stcatharines.ca and at local
garden centres.
Deadline for entries is July 24, with the awards
handed out in September.
Harbour enforcement officers Carolyn Askeland (left) and Jennifer Green, and harbour attendant
Justyna Bleich ensure everything at the Port Dalhousie Harbour goes swimmingly during the summer boating season.
Paddlers compete for glory and a good cause at Dragon Boat Festival
Alicia Floyd could have been a walking
billboard for laundry detergent after last
year’s Dragon Boat Festival.
Floyd didn’t just battle fellow dragon
boaters on Martindale Pond, she had to
contend with rain and mud on a soggy
festival day.
“We were all soaked and covered in mud.
It was definitely fun,” said Floyd, who does
data entry and artifact digitization at the
St. Catharines Museum.
But Floyd, a first time dragon boater,
knew the day would be a blast when she
organized a team of 22 of her museum
co-workers for the event. She was also
compelled to pick up a paddle because
the festival benefits the St. Catharines
Museum.
Dragon boat team registration fees go
toward museum projects, such as renovating and updating the museum’s interactive
discovery room.
“Ninety nine per cent of the time, the
money goes toward education – education
programs for kids,” said Karen Cockerham,
festival secretary.
With the 11th annual St. Catharines
Dragon Boat Festival set for Saturday,
July 24, the St. Catharines Museum will
again benefit from dozens of teams racing
against each other on the water in the
day-long event.
Last year, paddlers raised $15,000 for the
The 11th annual St. Catharines Dragon Boat Festival happens Saturday, July 24, on Martindale Pond. Event
proceeds and pledges go toward the St. Catharines Museum, Wellspring Niagara and Out of the Cold.
city landmark.
Dragon boaters also collect pledges for
Wellspring Niagara, a cancer support
centre that has helped more than 1,000
people since opening its doors in 2001,
while proceeds from food and beverage
sales on festival day go to Out of the
Cold, an overnight shelter program for the
homeless.
The event does more than help the com-
munity. It also builds community – and
camaraderie -- between paddlers, Floyd
said.
Paddling the long boats in sync on
Martindale Pond was a great way to get to
know her colleagues, she said.
“I really think it brought a lot of us closer,”
Floyd said. “It’s nice to get out and do
something for a good cause, and get to
know your co-workers.”
June 2010
The Garden City Current
Page 3
St. Catharines
grows up
Garden City Plan charts a
course for future
A satellite image of the Golden
Horseshoe hangs on the wall of
an office in the City’s planning
department.
Even from space, St. Catharines
is easy to pick out – a defined
rectangular mass of development
in the midst of the vast Niagara
peninsula.
Sitting at a table nearby, planners Bruce Bellows and Rick
Tapp hold the map to the future
within city boundaries as finite on
earth as they
appear in space.
Bellows and Tapp are the
authors of the new Garden City
Plan, the latest edition of the
city’s Official Plan to guide growth
and development in St. Catharines for years to come.
It’s the how-to manual for
creating a city that will grow
up instead of out, encouraging
development that fits with its surroundings, preserving farmland
OFFICIAL PLAN HIGHLIGHTS
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Protection of agricultural lands with no expansion of the urban boundary
Mixed-use, compact developments combining
walkable, bikeable residential, employment and
recreational components.
Concentrating high density residential development on major corridors within the city.
A downtown as a targeted area of growth and
the city’s major mixed-use activity centre.
Permitting community gardens in all zoning
categories on appropriate sites and promoting
community gardens in all development/redevelopment initiatives.
Developing a community energy plan that
emphasizes alternative energy sources and a
decentralized energy system.
Establishing urban design guidelines that promote energy efficiency.
Providing a municipally maintained, continuous
network of cycling trails, with bicycle parking at
public facilities and transit stops.
Designing developments that are compatible
with their surroundings.
Committing necessary money to create
and maintain high quality public buildings,
streetscapes and open spaces to reflect the
Garden City image.
and the city’s cultural heritage
resources, leaving room for
naturalized spaces in the urban
area’s midst and through it all,
giving meaning once again to the
Garden City moniker.
“It’s all those things that are a
sense of place,” Bellows said.
Bottom line, “We’re trying to
make a compact, walkable community,” Tapp said.
And a sustainable one.
That means a city where pedestrians aren’t an afterthought. It’s
a place where neighbourhoods
and amenities are connected
rather than existing as disjointed
entities.
It’s where a “complete street”
includes sidewalks, bike lanes
or wide paved shoulders, special
bus lanes, frequent crosswalks,
accessible pedestrian signals
and plenty of benches for people
to take a break.
The plan calls for other green
initiatives, such as transit service
to be bolstered downtown, in intensified residential and employment areas and to get people to
GO transit stations.
Policies stipulating that development maintain, enhance or
restore the health and integrity
of the local ecosystem have also
been included. Ditto for development designs that incorporate
the use of renewable energy,
such as wind and solar.
Incentives for more public art
and community gardens are
also written into the Garden
City Plan.
The document isn’t just looking at the big picture, though.
Tapp and Bellows get down to
the finer details, such as calling
for utility providers to use equipment or devices that don’t detract
from nearby cultural heritage
features in a neighbourhood.
The Garden City Plan has been
three years in the making. What
started out as a tweaking of the
original, penned some 30 years
ago and last reviewed in the
1990s, turned into a major rewrite
thanks to the input Bellows and
Tapp received at 32 public
meetings held in every corner of the city to learn how
residents wanted their city.
“As we got into the process, it just became a new
document,” Bellows said.
Agricultural lands have
also been given more
attention than in the previous incarnation of the
Official Plan.
“We were much more
emphatic that it’s a
huge part of that
sense of place that
should be protected,”
Bellows said. “We
really strengthened
what was in the current plan but really
brought other things
to the forefront.
“I think there’s a
lot of amenities
here that the city
never really promoted and we’re
saying, let’s take
advantage of
those,” he added.
Since the release of the Garden
City Plan’s first draft in January,
the planning duo said resident
reaction has been positive. They
have even received cards of
thanks for listening so intently
during those brainstorming sessions over the past few years.
“That was surprising,” Tapp said.
“We went out three years ago
and saw a lot of apathy. They
didn’t think we’d listen, let alone
respond.”
In the end, Bellows and Tapp
have a document they say they
are proud of, particularly as they
get ready to present the final
draft to council June 7.
“We feel we’re on the right
track,” Bellows said. “It’s not the
be all and the end all but it’s a
stepping stone to a sustainable,
achievable community.”
Clockwise from top: Open spaces, infill
developments, preservation of agricultural lands, multi-modal transportation
with less emphasis on the automobile, the
downtown with mixed-use, high density
development and support of urban agriculture in the form of community gardens
are all components of the Garden City
Plan, the city’s new Official Plan.
WANT TO
COMMENT ON
THE GARDEN
CITY PLAN?
A public meeting, where
residents can comment on the
recommendation that council
adopt the Garden City Plan, will
be held Monday, June 7, at 6:30
p.m. in council chambers at
City Hall. Those comments and
a planning services report will
be considered by council that
night when making a decision.
If the Garden City Plan is adopted by council, the amendment must then be submitted
to the Region for final approval.
Page 4
CITY THANKS VOLUNTEERS
It couldn’t be done without them.
The City of St. Catharines recently said thank
you to volunteers who make our community a
great place to live by donating time and energy
to make local events and organizations a success.
Last month, the St. Catharines Museum recognized their Milestone Volunteers -- philanthropists who have given years to helping out at the
repository of all things St. Catharines past and
present.
Lawrence Gadula, Norm Whitehead, Kenneth
Croft, Whitey Frick, George Scott, Gord Hastings, Patrick Little and Linda Kurki were honoured for 10 years of volunteer
service at the museum.
Mike Conley and Henke Glover
were thanked for giving five
years of their time so far.
“The museum is deeply honoured by, and grateful for,
the time and efforts of all our
volunteers,” said Karen Cockerham, museum administrative
assistant.
The City also handed out its Vol- JEFFREY
unteer of the Year awards at its
annual Volunteer Recognition Night this spring.
Eighty-five good Samaritans were nominated
for the honours in the youth and adult categories.
Cara Jeffrey, 17, got the nod for
the Margaret MacLennan Youth
Volunteer of the Year award.
The Laura Secord Secondary School student earned the
recognition for her time volunteering with the Out of the Cold
program, coaching soccer for
children with special needs and
her efforts to assist global charVAN VLACK
ity, Free the Children, in building
a school in Sierra Leone.
Jeffery was joined in the spotlight by Cindy Van
Vlack, who was named Volunteer of the Year.
The St. Catharines resident has volunteered
her time diffusing difficult situations as a crisis
negotiator with the Niagara Victim Crisis Support Services.
Van Vlack has also collected toys and food for
the past 16 years for Community Care of St.
Catharines and Thorold’s Christmas campaigns.
HAVE YOU VISITED…
June 2010
The Garden City Current
Green roof red hot
with museum
visitors
The new green roof at the St. Catharines Museum is the first of its kind in the Garden City. The roof adds colour and ecological benefits to what was once a concrete
terrace.
Gone is the simple concrete surface atop
the St. Catharines Museum.
In its place is an eye-catching garden
doubling as a roof with benefits beyond
being just a building topper.
Last fall, the second-floor terrace at the
museum at Lock 3 was transformed into
a green roof – a structure with ecological
and eye-catching attributes.
It’s the first of its kind for the City of
St Catharines, and a chance to create
a showpiece and learning tool out of a
roof that needed replacing, said Anthony
Martuccio, design and construction engineer in Transportation and Environmental
Services.
From Kathleen Powell’s vantage point,
the arrow-shaped garden covered with a
thick carpet of low-maintenance, succulent
plants is another reason to visit the St.
Catharines Museum.
“More and more the museum community
has come to recognize its responsibility
in making our world a better place to live,”
the museum manager said. “This green
roof offers the opportunity for the museum
to show leadership in environmental sustainability while at the same time offering a
lovely respite for its visitors.”
Since the green roof’s official opening on
Earth Day, April 22, it has been a hot spot
for boat watchers and those just taking a
breather.
“The green roof has been very popular
since it was built and visitors of all ages
have taken the time to enjoy its beauty,”
Powell said.
But the green roof, planted by Kristi Montovani of Snips Landscaping, is more than
just another tourist attraction.
Made up of layers of drainage systems,
soil and plants, the green roof catches
and filters water that will be used to keep it
irrigated and lush.
It also creates a cooling effect inside the
museum, which means reduced energy
costs come summer.
Once the green roof is established, beneficial organisms and insects will make the
plants and soil their home. Then the green
roof will be a beacon for birds, who will
come in search of food.
Add that to the carbon dioxide the plants
will devour and transform into oxygen and
it’s easy to see why this roof is green in
more than just colour.
Unlike its previous incarnation as an
ordinary alcove with little to offer, save
for the view, the green roof will also have
benches for visitors to take a load off any
time of day.
The green roof never closes and some
days, it’s tough to find an empty seat,
Powell said.
Jocelyn Roof Consultants, Snips Landscaping, D.F. Brown Roofing, The St.
Lawrence Seaway Management Corp
and Rankin Construction donated wooden
seats to line the edges of the garden.
Events Calendar
June 5 – Children’s Pet Show,
9:30 a.m., Lakeside Park.
905.688.5601, ext. 1927 or www.
stcatharines.ca
June 5, July 4 & Aug. 5 – Heritage Corridor Walk. 7 p.m. Tickets
$8 per person. 905.685.8424 to
reserve.
June 9 – Payroll Information
for New Employers and Payroll
Administration seminar. 6:30 p.m.
CRA office, 32 Church St. Free.
MORNINGSTAR MILL
Where: 2710 DeCew Rd.
What: Morningstar Mill is a historic grist mill,
saw mill, blacksmith shop, museum, park and
interpretive centre. The grist mill, which still
works today to grind local grain into flour, was
built in 1872 to process wheat, oats, barley and
rye. The City of St. Catharines Water Works
Commission bought land nearby in 1875 and
constructed dams across Beaverdams Creek,
which interfered with the mill’s water supply.
As a result, the City was compelled to buy the
property in 1878 and leased the mill to many
millers. The City sold the property to its namesake, Wilson Morningstar, in 1883. He operated
the mill until his death in 1933. Morningstar’s
widow sold the property in 1941 to Ontario Hydro, which sold it back to the City in 1989.
Did you know?
Admission to the heritage site is free thanks to
a group of dedicated volunteers, known as the
Friends of the Morningstar Mill, and donations
from visitors to the site.
The flour ground by the grist mill is available
for sale at the mill, which is open from May 1 to
Thanksgiving.
CITY TACKLES GRAFFITI
Unsightly scrawls are on the decline in the city.
But with summer on its way, tis the season for
graffiti to be on the rise.
There is help for those who find their neighbourhood under siege of spray bombs and
tasteless taggers.
Businesses and residents can report graffiti to
the City of St. Catharines’ Graffiti Hotline. Once
reports are received about graffiti on city-owned
buildings and fixtures, work orders will be made
for city staff to remove the scribbles within 48
hours. Obscene or discriminatory graffiti will be
obliterated within 24 hours.
Help is also available for private property owners who have been victimized by vandals.
The Graffiti Assistance Program will pay property owners half the cost of graffiti removal, up
to $500 and up to three times a year.
Graffiti removal must be done by a contractor
who has been prequalified by the city.
Call 905.688.5601, ext. 3115 for the Graffiti Hotline and the assistance program.
Residents can also expect to see more reminders to report graffiti this summer.
The Mayor’s Graffiti Committee has partnered
with Crime Stoppers to launch a poster campaign asking people to report information about
acts of graffiti and earn cash rewards up to
$500.
Pattison Signs has donated space for posters in
bus shelters throughout St. Catharines.
June 12–20 – Niagara New Vintage Festival. 30 Ontario wineries.
Tours, tastings and special events.
905.688.0212 www.niagarawinefestival.com.
June 18 – Art City. Every third
Friday evening of the month until
Sept. Call 905.988.1888 or visit
www.stcartscouncil.ca.
June 19 – Strawberry Festival/
Cooking at Market Square. 9-2
p.m. Strawberry Festival 10 a.m.1 p.m. Mobile culinary theatre
with six notable St. Catharines
chefs. 905.688.5601, ext. 1508.
June 26 – Full Moon Ghost Walk.
9 p.m. Tickets $8 per person.
905.685.8424 to reserve.
June 27 – SCENE Music Festival,
one of Canada’s largest, one
day, all ages independent music
festivals. www.scenemusicfestival.
com.
June 30 – July 4 – Port
Dalhousie Lion’s Club Carnival.
905.937.4783. www.portdalhousie.com.
Now-Aug. 13 – Shoot High – Go Low: Arts & Sports in St. Catharines, City of St. Catharines
6th annual juried art show. Weekdays, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. City Hall. The exhibit includes
several unique artistic works, including the one above called Cheer by artist Mark Thomas
and right called Focus by John Gill.
mer’s largest fireworks displays
on the shores of Lake Ontario.
905.937.4783. www.portdalhousie.com.
July 4 – Sausage Festival.
Slovenian Lipa Park. Call Tony
905.685.4149 or email ahcobb@
sympatico.ca.
July 6 – Free concert in Montebello Park. Vox Violins. 7-9 p.m.
Free. 905.688.5601, ext. 1915 or
email jmcquillan@stcatharines.ca.
July 8-10, 15-17 – Shakespeare
in the Vineyard. Twelfth Night at
Henry of Pelham Winery. Tickets
$25. Order online, www.arts.
brocku.ca or call 905.688.5550,
ext. 3257.
July 1 – Canada Day Street Festival. 11 - 3 p.m. Market Square.
905.688.5601, ext. 1508.
July 10 – Downtown Classic
Car Show and Fiddle Festival.
9-5 p.m. St. Paul Street. Free.
905.685.8424. www.mydowntown.ca.
July 1 – Port Dalhousie Canada
Day Celebrations. One of the sum-
July 11 – Free concert in Montebello Park. Lincoln and Welland
Ambassadors. 7-9 p.m. Free.
905.688.5601, ext. 1915 or email
jmcquillan@stcatharines.ca.
July 13 – Free concert in Montebello Park. Solid Brass. 7-9 p.m.
Free. 905.688.5601, ext. 1915 or
email jmcquillan@stcatharines.ca.
July 16 – Art City. Every third
Friday evening of the month until
Sept. Call 905.988.1888 or visit
www.stcartscouncil.ca.
July 18 – Free concert in
Montebello Park. Walter Ostanek.
7-9 p.m. Free. 905.688.5601,
ext. 1915 or email jmcquillan@
stcatharines.ca.
July 24 – The Bard’s
Bus Tour 2010. Twelfth
Night performed by
The Driftwood Theatre
Group. 7:30 p.m.
Montebello Park.
905.688.5601, ext.
1959.
July 25 – Free concert
in Montebello Park.
Permtones. 7-9 p.m.
Free. 905.688.5601,
ext. 1915 or email
jmcquillan@stcatharines.ca.
July 26 – Full Moon Ghost Walk.
9 p.m. Tickets $8 per person.
905.685.8424 to reserve.
July 20 – Free concert in Montebello Park. Lincoln and Welland
Regiment Band. 7-9 p.m. Free.
905.688.5601, ext. 1915 or email
jmcquillan@stcatharines.ca.
July 27 – Free concert in
Montebello Park. Winston James.
7-9 p.m. Free. 905.688.5601,
ext. 1915 or email jmcquillan@
stcatharines.ca.
July 24 – 11th Annual Dragon
Boat Festival. Martindale Pond.
905.984.8880 to register a team.
www.stcatharinesdragonboat.org July 30 – Aug 2 – Annual Rotary
Ribfest. Montebello Park. Free
admission. 905.684.3500, ext. 34
www.rotaryniagara.org.
Aug. 3-8 – 128th Royal Canadian
Henley Regatta. Martindale Pond.
Email info@henleyregatta.ca or
visit www.henleyregatta.ca for
more information.
Aug. 8 – Music in the Park. Slovenian Festival at Slovenia Lipa
Park. Call Tony, 905.685.4149 or
email ahcobb@sympatico.ca.
Aug. 8 – Free concert in Montebello Park. Sandy Vine Trio.
7-9 p.m. Free. 905.688.5601,
ext. 1915 or email jmcquillan@
stcatharines.ca.
Market Recipe
STRAWBERRY PANNA COTTA
By Chef Erik Peacock
Wellington Court Restaurant
11 Wellington St., St. Catharines
Panna cotta:
1 C (250ml) whipping cream
1 C (250ml) milk
1/4 C (50g) sugar
1 1/2 tsp (3g) agar-agar (or 2 sheets of gelatin: see instructions)
2 tsp (10 ml) vanilla extract or vanilla paste
Strawberry coulis:
9oz (250g) fresh strawberries
1/4 C (50g) sugar
Optional, for decoration:
12 small fresh strawberries
4 butter cookies (e.g. Petit Beurre)
Panna cotta:
Combine all panna cotta ingredients (if using gelatin, see instructions
below) in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer, stirring from time
to time. Do not let it boil. Let cool for five minutes. Rinse four half-cup
ramekins or bowls quickly under cold water. Do not dry – this will help
unmold them if you choose to – and distribute the panna cotta mixture
evenly among them. Refrigerate until firm, about three hours or overnight.
Note: if you are using gelatin instead of agar-agar, do not combine the
gelatin with the rest of the ingredients. Instead, soak the sheets in a bowl
of cold water while you bring the other ingredients to a simmer, then
press dry with your hands – they will be soft – and whisk into the panna
cotta mixture while it cools.
Strawberry coulis:
Rinse the strawberries quickly under cool water and drain. Cut stems off,
and cut berries into quarters. Combine in a small saucepan with the sugar
and 2 tbsp. of water. Bring to a simmer and remove from heat immediately. Pour into a blender or food processor and mix with short pulses.
Cover, let cool to room temperature and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Serve the panna cotta in their ramekins topped with a layer of coulis, or
unmold them carefully onto plates and drizzle with the coulis. Decorate
each plate with three whole strawberries and a butter cookie.