Town is revising its anticipated reopening date for Parkhill Street because the thoroughfare’s reconstruction drags on. (Picture: Will Pearson)
You’re studying the September 3, 2024 version of the Peterborough Currents e-mail e-newsletter. To obtain our e-mail newsletters straight to your inbox, join right here.
Good morning and welcome to the Peterborough Currents e-newsletter, the place we share our newest tales and catch you up on native information.
This week:
Council votes on PATH rezoning for a remaining time tonight
The commonest query we’re requested as of late: “What’s up with Parkhill Road?”
Board of well being might name on federal authorities to institute fundamental revenue
Brock Mission desires to construct 50 new transitional housing models
And extra!
Let’s get to the information.
PATH continues years-long effort to construct sleeping cabin neighborhood
PATH board member Keith Dalton on the Lansdowne Avenue East property the place the non-profit desires to construct 24 sleeping cabins for individuals experiencing homelessness. (Picture: Brett Throop)
It’s a imaginative and prescient native volunteers have been working towards for years: constructing a sleeping cabin neighborhood to assist alleviate homelessness in Peterborough.
Peterborough Motion for Tiny Houses (PATH) has had cabins on the prepared for years, however they’ve struggled to discover a web site the place town will enable them to be erected.
PATH’s newest proposal is to construct as much as 24 sleeping cabins on a property the non-profit leases at 385 Lansdowne Avenue East. Their plan is to start out with 10 cabins in time for this winter. The location could be operated by the Elizabeth Fry Society of Peterborough, the identical company that runs town’s 50-unit sleeping cabin neighborhood on Wolfe Avenue.
However metropolis councillors shot down the proposal final week, voting 8-2 in opposition to PATH’s request for a brief zoning change that might enable the undertaking to maneuver ahead. Metropolis employees had really helpful approving the rezoning.
Mayor Jeff Leal was one of many eight members of council who opposed PATH’s request. Now, he says he’d prefer to look into utilizing PATH’s cabins to increase the municipally-owned Wolfe Avenue modular housing neighborhood as a substitute. “We want to take advantage of the work that they [PATH] have completed,” he stated.
However PATH remains to be dedicated to its Lansdowne web site. Board member Keith Dalton stated he was “disgusted” with council’s vote final week. “We felt council was unjustly pandering to public opinion,” he stated. Dalton stated including cabins to the Wolfe Avenue web site gained’t be sufficient to cope with the homelessness drawback in Peterborough.
Leal acknowledged that there’s a “need to house more people” as winter approaches. A latest report from One Metropolis Peterborough said that its in a single day shelter on the Trinity Centre was at capability most nights final winter and needed to flip individuals away lots of of instances.
Council will vote on PATH’s request for a zoning change for a remaining time tonight. Earlier than the vote, make amends for the story thus far — together with why councillors initially rejected the proposal — with this new article by Currents reporter Brett Throop.
Different tales to observe
BROCK MISSION PROPOSES 50-UNIT TRANSITIONAL HOUSING DEVELOPMENT
The Brock Mission desires to construct a 50-unit transitional housing complicated to alleviate homelessness within the coming years, the Ontario Chronicle experiences. The charity plans to ask metropolis council for $250,000 to place in direction of engineering, architectural, and web site planning bills. The objective is to entry federal funding to pay for the development itself, which is anticipated to price a minimum of $16 million. Full particulars, equivalent to the place the constructing will probably be positioned and a whole price breakdown, have but to be decided.
NEW TRANSIT SCHEDULES TAKE EFFECT TODAY
As the brand new college 12 months begins, town is adjusting its transit schedules. Most notably, they’re returning to larger frequency for routes that serve Peterborough’s post-secondary establishments. Town can be bringing again Route 11, which runs between downtown and Trent College however solely operates in the course of the college 12 months. For a full checklist of the schedule adjustments taking impact, click on right here.
BOARD OF HEALTH TO CONSIDER A CALL FOR BASIC INCOME
Peterborough’s board of well being might be part of different Ontario well being models in calling for the federal authorities to assist a assured livable revenue. A number of well being models throughout the province have in latest months voiced assist for Bills S-233 and C-223, which embody a framework for creating a fundamental revenue for Canadians residing in poverty. Peterborough’s board of well being will think about writing to the Prime Minister and different parliamentary leaders to induce assist for the bills at its assembly on Wednesday night time.
“Implementing a Livable Basic Income Guarantee would have a significant impact on addressing health inequities and supporting the health and wellbeing of vulnerable community members,” a report from Peterborough Public Well being states. Peterborough’s medical officer of well being Thomas Piggott lately spoke at a symposium that centered on the connection between revenue and well being, the place he said that “all roads to health lead through income.”
Peterborough Public Well being has advocated for a fundamental revenue assure on a number of events previously.
NINE SHIPS BICENTENARY WEBSITE LAUNCHES
Subsequent 12 months is the bicentenary of the 1825 migration that introduced over 2,000 Irish settlers to Peterborough and the encompassing townships. A non-profit referred to as 9 Ships has fashioned to arrange commemorative occasions, they usually’ve launched a brand new web site exploring this historical past of the emigration. Test it out right here.
PARKHILL ROAD CLOSURE DRAGS ON
It was quiet on Parkhill Street final week when Currents visited to test in on the standing of the development undertaking that has closed the key east-west thoroughfare for greater than a 12 months. Visitors cones and highway closure indicators littered the road, and some items of heavy equipment had been parked on the pavement. However there have been no staff current and no work being performed, which has been typical all through a lot of 2024.
By final winter, the key underground parts of the undertaking — together with the set up of latest water mains and sewers — had been accomplished and the roadway was awaiting “finishing works” equivalent to landscaping and floor paving, metropolis spokesperson Brendan Wedley informed Currents in March. Completion was anticipated in the summertime, Wedley wrote on the time.
However the anticipated timelines had been missed this summer time as quite a few days glided by with out development crews current. “There has been some reduced works out there,” town’s infrastructure commissioner Blair Nelson informed councillors on June 27. However Nelson stated crews had been getting ready to “remobilize” and start work once more in the course of the week of July 3 in an effort to end the undertaking by the top of July or starting of August.
Now, town is providing a brand new estimation for completion: someday this September.
Why all of the delays? Town spokesperson offered some particulars to Currents final week. Throughout development, town recognized the necessity for added work that wasn’t a part of the unique design, Wedley wrote. That included the set up of retaining partitions to guard some properties which can be alongside the hall and extra work for soil administration.
Town awarded the Parkhill reconstruction undertaking in an open bid course of in spring 2023. The bottom bidder, Trisan Building, bought the job. Trisan had bid $5.8 million for the undertaking. The undertaking is on-budget, Wedley said.
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Will Pearson
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Peterborough Currents
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