Request for a temporary dog run during arena construction

Bridget Blackadder, president of the Westmount Dog Owner’s Association, asked the following questions during the first question period at the June 7th City Council Meeting.

Bridget Blackadder: Bridget Blackadder, Springfield Avenue. Two-part question for the mayor and council. Do we have an expected start date for the construction of the arena, and, do we have an idea of how long the noisy, messy, construction might last?

Mayor Trent: Perhaps I could ask the chairman of the arena committee, but we're talking early next year I suppose breaking ground?

Chairman: I would say to just looking at a timeline of what is reasonably possible given that we are getting into the more detailed design phases and then we have to go to tender etc., It would be unrealistic to think that any construction would begin in the year 2010. .So you could pick, if it were it would be at the very end of the year or the beginning of next year would be the earliest possible date when you could imagine the start. That actually is an advantage in the sense that when you are doing excavation and that kind of thing which is the messy and the noisy part, it’s winter and people’s windows are closed so you know, there’s an advantage to actually getting that work done then so that could work in our favour And then a project of this size should take about 18 months, but it reaches a phase after a year I would say where you’re working indoors, right, so. ..

Mayor Trent: dust..

Chairman: Such as it is..

Bridget Blackadder: indoors, under doors..

Chairman: Yes so..

Bridget Blackadder: The reason I ask is that during the heavy construction, the dog run at Lansdowne will have to be closed. The construction folk are going to need that space for making their messes and, you know, for safety reasons the dogs and their walkers and owners. So I’m putting in front of council the need to add something else to the To Do list. We have to find an adequately sized, safely fenced, appropriately lit, dog run for, we’ll call it between 12 and 18 months. And I guess we’d best get started now. So who do I speak to? Who is going to get this yummy little mini-project started?

Chairman: I think you just did. We will have of course a checklist, this is just one of them, traffic considerations…all kinds of things… that need to be managed in the course of this project and that's definitely one of them.

Bridget Blackadder: I would like to, I will write you a letter listing out what I think the dog folk would believe to be an appropriate..

Chairman: That would be very helpful

Bridget Blackadder: ..substitute with any caveats that we know from history, and then I’ll get on the phone to you.

Chairman: That would be very helpful and I would thank you for it.