ACNA Newsletter April 2016

8/18/2019 ACNA Newsletter April 2016

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A l p i n e C o m m u n i t y N e i g h b o u r h o o d A s s o c i a t i o n

A P R I L 2 0 1 6

Alpine village

garage sale: June 11We encourage residents to put out their

garage sale items on the morning of

Saturday June 11th 2016, making itmore appealing for buyers to come to

our neighbourhood to find lots of sales

in one area on the same day.

This year we are working with the

Country Hills Recreation Association

to expand the area of the Garage

Sale event, and we will be promoting

individual sales through an online Google

Map showing the location of each sale.

Contact us at [email protected] or 519-503-4795 with your address

and any special sale items to get your

sale on the map.

Our rain date is Saturday June 18th.

Check our blog and Facebook pages

on the 10th and 11th for any update

announcements.

Thank you

NeighbourS! ACNA co-hosted the Family

Day Skate party in February,

even though we had no skating,

due to the weather. During

the indoor event we held, wealso collected 69 pounds of

food for the Food Bank of

Waterloo Region, and a few

cash donations. Thank you to

all who contributed.

P r i n t e d i n c o - o p e r a t i o n w i t h T h e C i t y o f K i t c h e n e r




A P R I L 2 0 1 6

Very Easy

Strawberry

Rhubarb JamIngredients:

• 4 cups sugar (I usually use 3 or less

depending on how tart you like it)

• 5 cups rhubarb

• 1 540 ml can crushed pineapple

• 2 small packages (2-3 oz)

strawberry Jell-O

Directions:• Combine first three ingredients in

a large pot and boil rapidly for

20 minutes

• Remove from heat

• Stir in 2 small packages of Jell-O.

Use the Jell-O brand as the “no

name” brand does not provide

the same results

• Spoon into jars and enjoy

Your backyardVegetable GardenI know spring planting season is a bit in the distance

but here is some food for thought if you are thinking

about a backyard vegetable garden.If you do not have room for a garden, then consider container plants. They yield wel

and can be put on a deck or near a back door for easy harvesting.

We keep it simple these years with just planting tomatoes, onions, sweet peppers

and hot peppers. Oh, and of course, our rhubarb plant which yields quite a bit and

we give lots of it away.

We know there are no pesticides or other chemicals. My mouth starts to water wait-

ing for that first ripe tomato to make a toasted tomato sandwich. We sometimes

fight the rabbits for the first one but there is plenty to go around.

Starting a vegetable garden at home is an easy way to save money — that $2 tomatoplant can easily provide you with 10 pounds of fruit over the course of a season.

Planting a garden with vegetables also gives you the pleasure of savoring a delicious

sun-warmed tomato fresh from the garden. In almost every case, the flavor and

texture of varieties you can grow far exceed the best grocery store produce.

Plus, growing vegetables can be fun. It’s a great way to spend time with children o

have a place to get away and spend time outdoors in the sun.

Where to plant:

1. Full sun. Most vegetables need at least 6-8 hours of direct sun. If they don’t

get enough light, they won’t bear as much and they’ll be more susceptible toattack from insects or diseases.

2. Plenty of water. Because most vegetables aren’t very drought tolerant, you’ll

need to give them a drink during dry spells. When thinking about how to plan

a vegetable garden, remember: The closer your garden is to a source of water,

the easier it will be for you. I make full use of our rain barrels.

3. Good soil. As with any kind of garden, success usually starts with the soil.

Most vegetables do best in moist, well-drained soil that’s rich in organic matter

(such as compost or peat moss).

Good luck.




A P R I L 2 0 1 6

Date: SUNDAY APR IL 24 , 20 16

Time: 2:00 PM TO 4:00 PM

Where: COUNTRY HILLS COMMUNITYCENTER, 100 RITTENHOUSE ROAD

The Country Hills Recreation Association

holds its 19th annual Family Fun Day,

featuring many activities for children,

like face painting, KPL Kids, bouncy

castle, midway games, and more.

ACNA is part of the planning & volunteer

team too, so we’re all invited to come

on out to experience the fun.

ADMISSION: $1 per child overthe age of 1 year

If you can, please

bring non-perishable

food items to support

the Food Bank of

Waterloo Region.

Family

Fun Day




A P R I L 2 0 1 6

Greetings Alpine Residents,

It’s a great privilege to be able to rep-

resent the many different and distinct

neighbourhoods in Ward 6. I’m especially

fortunate to represent Alpine Village.

The Alpine Community Neighbourhood Association helps greatly to add vibrancy

to this neighbhourhood. I encourage

more residents to participate with ACNA

in the various capacities that are avail-

able. Residents can apply to be on the

ACNA board, be a member at large or

volunteer with the many different events

that ACNA plan throughout the year. Find

their next scheduled meeting date on

their blog at alpine-cna.blogspot.ca.

At the beginning of this year, councilapproved a property tax increase of

1.45%, very close to the 2015 CPI

average. I supported this increase, as it

was consistent with my ongoing efforts

to help ensure taxes come in at inflation.

This allows our residents to budget

accordingly and ensure sustainability

and affordability for the taxpayer. The

increase will be a $15.00 annual impact

on the average household assessed

at $280,000. This doesn’t include the

impact of the Region of Waterloo’s budget and school board tax rate changes.

Although I was pleased with the tax levy

increase, which was the lowest in the

Region, I was not okay with, and did

NOT support, the 7.6% increase to water,

10.8% increase to sanitary sewer rates,

and 9.2% increase to storm water utility

rates. I did put forth two different motions

to reduce these increases, but they

were both defeated 7-4 by council.

It’s fair to note that the approved

increases are to address the backlog ofinfrastructure that need replacing, but I

still feel it should have been done with

more public engagement, dialogue and

in a manner that our citizens could afford.

I was happy that the budget for

community gardens was increased by

$50,000 for use in 2016. These funds

will be used to further develop existing

gardens or to create new gardens in

areas identified by resident interest,

which continues to increase.

The city has been able to leverage

matching federal funding of $250,000

from the Canada 150 Infrastructure

Program. This will help to further expand

the city’s Wi-Fi network, including loca-

tions like McLennan Park, an initiative

I have been advocating for some time.

I am happy to make myself available to

meet with you at a time and location that

is convenient to you. You can reach meat City Hall 519-741-2793, by email at

[email protected] , or follow

me on Twitter @paulsinghward6.

Sincerely,

Councillor Paul Singh – Ward 6

Don’t Miss Anyof our Facebook

PostingsMake sure you are seeing all of the

postings for the “Alpine Community

Neighbourhood Association” Face-

book group. Facebook does not

automatically place all the postings

for the people/groups you “Like” in

your home newsfeed.

Towards the top of the group page,

you will see the word “Notifications”.

Click on it, and when the drop-down

menu appears, click on “All Posts”.

Then you’re done.

RememberingPeter KahnerLate last year ACNA member Pete

Kahner passed away. A long time

member, for many years he was ou

newsletter publisher and attended ou

meetings regularly. We miss him and

remember him as a good friend and a

good neighbour.




A P R I L 2 0 1 6

Date: SATURDAY APRIL 23, 2016

Time: 9:00AM TO 11:30AM

Where: ALPINE PUBLIC SCHOOL -

at the back of the school

(no access to school facilities)

Every year, people in our neighbourhood

volunteer a couple of hours of their timeto help clean up the neighbourhood of

the litter that accumulates over time.

We clean up the publicly-owned areas,

like in the woods of Alpine Park and

along the power line corridor. Please

come out this year and join us!

• If the weather is wet on Saturday, we

will clean up on Sunday morning,

same time. Watch our blog and

Facebook page for updates.

• We will supply garbage bags and

gloves. If you like, bring your own to

help us manage resources.

• Bring your collected garbage back

to the meeting point and we will take

it away for disposal.

• We provide water and Timbits.

Thank you gift items too.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Cleaning Up For

Earth Day




A P R I L 2 0 1 6

Webs i t e : http ://alp ine-cna .blogspot .com/

Fac ebook group : Alp ine Commun ity Ne ighbourhood Assoc iat ion

JENNY BOURKE—NEWSLETTER LAYOUT

[email protected]

GRAHAM JEFFERY—PRESIDENT OF ACNA

519-503-4795 ∙ [email protected]

ACNA—Who Are We?We are the neighbourhood association for the area bounded by Block Line Road,

Homer Watson Blvd., Strasburg Road and Ottawa Street. Anyone living within these

boundaries is welcome to join. We volunteer to ensure a better social, economic

and business climate in the neighbourhood. We publish this newsletter, organize

events, provide our neighbours with useful information, and focus on problems inthe neighbourhood. We meet once a month except July and August, usually the

first Tuesday of each month, in the Alpine Public School library, at 7:00 pm. Feel free

to come to a meeting! For more information, call Graham Jeffery 519-503-4795.

ACNA’s Annual

General MeetingWe choose our executive team at the

Annual General Meeting which will be

part of our May 3rd monthly meet-

ing. Our executive team comes out to

meetings and helps direct the events

and initiatives we are involved with. The

time demands are relatively modest.

If you like, you can come out to any

of our meetings to see what we are

all about - you don’t have to join the

executive if you don’t want to makethat level of commitment. At any

meeting, you can bring up topics o

interest to you.

Below are the dates of the next three

meetings, which are on Tuesdays a

Alpine Public School, 75 Lucerne

Ave. All meetings start at 7:00 pm

Please be on time as we cannot leave

the school’s main door unlocked afte

the meeting starts.

• April 5th

• May 3rd

• June 7th

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Documents

ACNA Newsletter April 2016