W.A.L.E.S. celebration on Thursday, Dec 3rd, 2009

HI  EVERYONE,

W.A.L.E.S is CELEBRATING

International Day of

People with Disabilities,

With an open house.

All are welcome to drop  in between 10am-2pm on Thursday December 3^rd, 2009 to be a part of a day of us sharing our gifts and talents. There is also a  bake sale, jewelry sale  and model sale.

From W.A.L.E.S. Group at Extend-A-Family 91 Moore Ave Kitchener Ontario!

Schipplings Moves to Braun

The Record has published two stories recently concerning the Schippling’s Bicycle Service store on Duke Street West. It has been closed for over a year after its owner, John Burhatsky, became ill and passed away at 92. This store is certainly a landmark in the area. My wife and I bought our son a bike there years ago and I still use my Norco saddlebags I bought from John. This recent article brings the good news that Braun bicycle has purchased the Schippling name and inventory. So some of the history will be preserved.


It is still not clear what will happen to the building. According to this earlier article, the area is now zoned residential (since 1994) so it can only be sold as a residence or a business with a bike shop. We already have Brauns and Ziggys in downtown Kitchener, so it is unlikely another bike shop will open there. The building is unsuitable as a residence in its present condition. From a neighbourhood perspective, it would seem to make most sense for another small business to open there with an opportunity for an apartment or two. This would need some kind of zoning variance and the earlier article discusses how getting any variance is problematic. 


It now seems likely that with the name and inventory sold, the building itself could be sold to a developer who could renovate or level it altogether and build apartments. 


I think this shows it is tricky to use zoning regulations to build a neighbourhood the way we want.  Without the regulations, a small business could have more easily continued in the building and the area could have kept a building with a lot of history and nice memories. On the other hand, it could have been bought by a business we did not like who might have erected a garish sign. It is difficult to enforce taste and restraint.


Whatever happens I hope the existing building can be preserved. Whenever I drive, walk or cycle past I think of John Burhatsky sitting in the store dispensing advice and fixing a flat tire or two.


Ted Parkinson

Take the Survey

Take the Waterloo Region's Crime prevention Survey. Tell them what you think about topics like crime, victimization etc. You could win prizes as well. 


Visit their website at www.preventingcrime.ca 

Executive Elected, Constitution Passed!

The MHBPNA had our annual meeting on October 28th at the Breithaupt Centre. Three very important things happened:

1) Architect John MacDonald discussed how we might use the free cultural assessment we won at the Festival of Neighbourhoods in 2008. Several ideas were discussed and after researching some options we will meet again.

2) We elected an executive for the next year. President: Trudy Beaulne, Secretary: Laurie Donaldson, Co-Treasurers: Helen Lippert and Joan Lazarski, Communications Director: Ted Parkinson. We still have openings for Programs Director, Special Events Director and Partnerships Director. Please send us an email if you are interested. Descriptions for all positions can be found in our constitution.

3) We passed our constitution! The full text of our constitution has been uploaded to the MHBPNA Website. Click here to view it. We spent several meetings developing the constitution and modeled it on those used by other Kitchener neighbourhood associations. We believe it is clear, easy to understand and will provide a solid structure for our future initiatives.

MHBPNA General Membership Meeting, Wed, Oct 28, 2009

Our Neighbourhood Association is holding an important General Membership Meeting. The date and location are:

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

Breithaupt Centre

6:30 - 9:30

Room 109

We have a special guest attending: Architect John MacDonald who will be discussing how we can proceed with a cultural assessment grant that we won from the 2008 Festival of Neighbourhoods.

Please attend this meeting and encourage others who live in the neighbourhood to come as well. We have been working on a very basic constitution and we need your support to implement it. Over the years, our association has helped many people and groups to offer courses at the Breithaupt centre, run events and to meet with other helpful individuals. The NA also works with the City of Kitchener to publish a newsletter and to support events and programming. Creating a constitution is one way to ensure our organization is transparent, accountable and easy to understand.

An organizational chart of our current neighbourhood association can be found on this page. Our boundaries can be found here.

Kitchener’s Festival of Neighbourhoods Finale, Oct 25th

This BLOG is all about our great neighbourhood. Throughout the year we post articles about what is going on, various events etc. You can look through the BLOG's history to find what has happened over the past several months.

The city of Kitchener is celebrating the past year with their Festival of Neighbourhoods finale at city hall on Sunday, Oct 25th. This event was advertised in our newsletter and it is described on the city's website on this page.

The city of Kitchener says: "Come celebrate with us! The finale takes place rain or shine on Sunday, October 25, 2009 starting at 1:00 pm. in the Rotunda at Kitchener City Hall. Registered Kitchener neighbourhoods are encouraged to come, share their experiences, and take part in the activities and award ceremony."

Throughout the past year our neighbourhood (and many others) has registered our events with the city (e.g. Lippert Park picnic, Jane's Walk, Duke Street Playground pot luck). During the FON finale there will be a draw for a $10, 000 grant. Each event a neighbourhood registers gives them a ballot for this finale draw.

Everyone is welcome to attend this event. We'll post on this BLOG the 2009 winner of the grant.

2009 Fall Newsletter uploaded

The fall 2009 MHBPNA newsletter has just been uploaded to our website. The physical copy has been delivered by volunteers but in case you've misplaced it, you can now read the electronic version.

To view/download the newsletter, click here.