City Solutions for Sunnyhill Lane Water & Ice

Submitted by Pam Boyd

Regarding Sunnyhill Lane Stream from a neighbourhood friend:

I attended a flood-related meeting with the City and GHD Engineering last night, where they described what they are considering to be the solutions for Sunnyhill Lane water & ice.

They will be twinning the pipes on 7th Avenue, south of Sunnyhill Lane, to take away more water. They know that they need to improve the grade, from 9th Ave below the bluff, enabling the water to flow from the base of the hill to 7th Ave. They will also be looking at options of a slotted drain running down the middle of Sunnyhill Lane, that would empty into 7th Ave. Our fearless leader (Charlie Lund) also wants them to look at draining the water at the base of the hill into 9th Ave (to the west) towards 5th Street. The engineers know they have to do a few things to bring solutions to Sunnyhill Lane drainage issues.

They are only about 60% through their design right now, but we see progress and we are leading them in the right direction. It probably won't be in place for another year or 2, but work is being done!

Meet & Greet with Ward 7 Candidate July 19

Submitted by Bob Bott

Erin Waite, one of the more progressive-sounding Ward 7 councillor candidates, would like to have a “meet and greet” with interested Sunnyhill members. She said she’s available Monday evening, July 19, so I suggested we gather around 7:30 by the Little Library and chat for a while or walk over to the picnic tables. Please spread the word among the members.

Several other candidates sound like they might be supportive of our values and aspirations, and it would be good to get to know them before the October 18 municipal election. Here’s the current list of those running in Ward 7, in alphabetical order, with links to their websites:

Ward 7

Incumbent: Druh Farrell

Daria Bogdanov

Bogdanov is an executive council member of the Progressive Group for Independent Business, the right-wing advocacy group that created Take Back City Hall. She is the Take Back City Hall candidate for Ward 7. Originally from Russia, Bogdanov touts her extensive business background—including marketing for Samsung and sales for a medical equipment company.

Matt Lalonde

Lalonde has a master's degree in city planning from the University of Calgary, which he says gives him the ability to provide hands-on policy and design solutions for the city. Lalonde wants to provide incentives to encourage small businesses, to strike a balance between inner-city redevelopment and preserving community character, and to promote "freedom of choice" for transportation.

Heather McRae

McRae is running a campaign calling for more civility at city hall. Having previously done communications work for Cenovus and Encana, she currently works at Decide Campaigns, which is run by her husband, Stephen Carter. In 2013, McRae worked as the campaign manager for incumbent Druh Farrell.

Marilyn North Peigan

Peigan, a member of the Piikani Nation who was appointed to the Calgary Police Commission in 2017, announced her candidacy on the day of the Women’s Memorial March honouring missing and murdered Indigenous women. She says she wants to enhance diversity at the city and help establish a "sustainable approach" to municipal governance.

Erin Waite

Waite has worked the past decade as the director of Connections, a counselling and consulting organization for those with disabilities, and prior to that worked in corporate communications and investment relations at Principal. She wants to find new uses for empty downtown office buildings and partner with various stakeholders on downtown revitalization.

Derek Williams

Williams supports downtown revitalization, the Green Line and the new arena, and wants to expand the city's cost-cutting programs, such as SAVE, as well as affordable housing. He's also the founder of a business that sells designer medical scrubs, and the sales manager for a janitorial services contractor.

Terry Wong

Wong has served as the executive director of the Calgary Business Improvement Area and is currently the president of the Hounsfield Heights Briar Hill Community Association. He has also been critical of the Guidebook for Great Communities. Wong says council needs to do a better job balancing its municipal infrastructure projects and broader planning goals.

Update on Pumping Station #2

Submitted by Candace Weir

Shake, rattle and roll, it must be 7 am.  

The drilling crew is probably on it's last week on the worksite.  They have drilled 39 pylons: 6 of which are huge, 19 of which will support the building.  Each pylon has taken about 6 cubic feet of concrete.  Impressive!

This was the view from my balcony earlier this week.  The drill behind the remains of last summers basil crop was about 5 feet from the edge of the unit.  The next photo gives a better view of the business end of the drill.  They drill for a bit, withdraw the bit, then knock and spin off the detritus and get back at it.  Each hole takes several tries to complete.

The machine delivering the concrete in the holes drilled resembles the back leg of a huge grasshopper.  

I didn't get pictures of the crew negotiating the huge steel beams into the cement.  One wrong move and there would have been no 743.  I really appreciate just how good everyone is at their job.

Phase 2 should be fun.  

C-Train Tunnel Testing

Submitted by Eric Moschopedis

The star indicates where the drilling was happening.

Did anybody see this giant truck parked in the middle of the Bow River or along the pathway last week? I was so curious as to what was happening that I tracked down one of the workers associated with it. Turns out they were gathering core samples from below the river and all the way to the bedrock, to see if it would be a suitable place for a tunnel for the proposed C-Train line. The gentleman I spoke to told me how strict The City was with the drilling. One day they needed to halt all operations because the drilling was kicking up too much silt and polluting the river. If you see the truck east of Centre Street Bridge, The City isn't drilling for the C-Train, but a proposed new sewer line.