Dear Highland Park Residents,
I am pleased to be writing these little notes again! I hope that you are all having a wonderful summer and enjoying the city and our community. In late June, we held our Annual General Meeting. I would like to thank all the outgoing Board members for their time and service to the CA. It was my pleasure to serve with you and I look forward to seeing you at events and on the sidewalks in the community again soon. I would like to welcome our new board members; we now have a full slate of 15 people serving on the HPCA Board. I have no doubt that 2021 to 2022 will bring us some interesting challenges and opportunities to serve the community and continue to shape our little corner of Calgary.
As you may have noticed, there is external work going on at the Hall these days. We are participating in a demonstration project with Alberta Low Impact Design Projects (ALIDP). They are building a rain garden on the south side of the Hall. The hope is that we will harvest the water that comes off the roof during rain events to water plants and ground cover. If you have time available, we are looking for a crew of enthusiastic green thumbs to help us maintain this garden. It will need some initial watering, but it will be the weeds that we need to keep a close eye on! We are actively recruiting volunteers to help keep up the garden. Please reach to me directly.
In addition to the rain garden, we will be addressing some life cycle issues with the Hall. We are just waiting for approvals from the City of Calgary and funding from the province. Hopefully, in late August or early September, we will be painting and repairing the stucco, replacing the roof of the North Hall, replacing furnaces inside the Hall, and doing some exploratory work on the south wall to determine how water is getting into the basement.
As you may know, the North Hill Communities Local Area Plan went before council in June this year and was passed. This document serves Highland Park to provide greater direction to developers as we continue to change and transition. We continue to see development permits and land use applications for the community. Wing Kei development at Centre Street and 40th Ave is progressing and HPCA provided thoughtful feedback to their recent submission.
Good Food Box continues to run at the Hall, so if you are interested in volunteering for that program or purchasing a box, please let us know. This is a great way to get fresh fruits and veggies! Block Connectors is also planning events for later this summer and into the Fall, so keep your eyes out for further information. There are ongoing meetups and outdoor coffees scheduled for the Hall field as well, I know we’ve all been a bit isolated over the last 18 months. You can reach to Rosalind, our Senior’s coordinator to learn more.
We are thrilled to be safely re-opening our Community Centre. We kicked off the interior renovation as the pandemic was starting and it has been largely unused since we completed the spaces. It will be wonderful to have families and individuals using the updated spaces for their events and rentals. If you would like to rent any of the spaces at our facility, please reach out to our Hall Manager, Carolyn Bergen. I would like to thank all our returning renters. We appreciate your investment in our space and are so appreciative that you have chosen HPCA to host your activities.
If you have the time and/or the inclination we are always looking for volunteers for events and activities. I know winter seems far away right now, but soon enough it will be rink flooding season and many hands make light work!
If you have any questions or concerns, or you just want to chat don’t hesitate to drop me a line.
Thanks,
Elise Bieche
