The City of Guelph, and it’s various partners and agencies, put out a lot of information on a weekly basis, and while it all ends up on the City’s website somewhere, wouldn’t it be easier to just scroll through it all on one easy-to-read article on Guelph Politico here…?

GRCA Asks Residents to Cut Water 20 Per Cent

The region has only received 25 per cent of the normal amount of rainfall for this time of year from mid-June, and that’s why the Grand River Conservation Authority is asking its member municipalities to cut water consumption 20 per cent. The City of Guelph already moved to Level 2 Red on July 12, but the GRCA’s declaration of a Level 2 under the Ontario Low Water Response Program is directed at municipalities and aggregate operations, golf courses, water bottlers, farms for irrigation and private users. The GRCA says that while their large reservoirs are within the normal operating range for this time of year, increased discharges to maintain flows downstream, plus evaporation, are adding further pressure.

Archaeological Excavation of Baker Complete!

The City of Guelph has declared that archaeological clearance activities for the Baker District redevelopment site, including clearing the roadways adjacent to the main development site, are now complete. The final tally is 129 grave shafts and 106 distinct discoveries of human remains or bone fragments. Plus, there were a small number of interesting items discovered including small glass bottles, clay pipes and the datestone of the former Victoria Curling Rink, which previously occupied the southern portion of the site. Underground pre-construction work is expected to begin in the fall.

Remaining Drums Removed from Bristol Street Park

Back in April, the City of Guelph began the process of removing the last of the metal drums still buried under Bristol Street Park, and that process is now complete. The City reports that no liquid waste and no hazardous materials were found in the drums, all materials were removed from the site for safe disposal, and testing shows that conditions at the site did not affect the water quality in either Howitt Creek or the Speed River. The site was backfilled with new soil suitable for residential and parkland use and over 100 new trees and shrubs, all of which are native to our region, were planted in the park. And that’s the end of that chapter.

United Way Hands out $100,000 in Community Action Grants

The United Way Guelph Wellington Dufferin has given out $100,000 to various community partners in a new stream called the Community Action Grants, which provide an opportunity to act on emerging and emergency needs and create more flexible funding opportunities for community organizations.

“Taking what we learned from administering COVID-19 response funding and through our Community Impact Strategy review, we realized that there was a need for us to have more flexibility when it came to responding to emerging needs in the community,” said Glenna Banda, executive director, United Way Guelph Wellington Dufferin. “Typically our resources are tied up in multi-year funding commitments, which doesn’t allow for us to be as fluid and responsive to emerging community issues as we’d like to be.”

In all, 13 groups are receiving funds including:

• The Seed for funding to assist with the lease of a refrigerated, dock height truck that will allow for increased access and distribution of food for food insecure community members.
• Shelldale Family Gateway for funding to support The Community Table, which provides needed items (fresh fruit & pantry items, personal hygiene and clothing) for the Onward Willow Community, free of charge.
• Child Witness Centre for funding to support Monet, a facility dog to support the mental health of young victims and witnesses of crime, especially through the criminal court process.
• Guelph Public Library for funding to purchase additional loanable Wi-Fi hotspots, to reduce the ongoing digital divide in our community.
• Wellington Guelph Drug Strategy to support easily accessible harm reduction supplies throughout Wellington County.

Action Read Community Literacy Centre, Centre Wellington Food Bank, Church of the Apostles – Helper Bees, Fanjoy Cooking Up Change, Guelph Black Heritage Society, Learning Disabilities Association of Wellington County, PIN – The People and Information Network, and Rainbow Programmes for Children also received funding.

Movies in the Park Returns this August!

Cinema in the City comes to York Road Park next month. Residents are being invited to bring a lawn chair, some snacks, and some friends to enjoy a couple of different movies: Clifford the Big Red Dog, based on the children’s books series, will screen on Saturday August 13 and the documentary Summer of Soul will be shown on Saturday August 13. The movies will begin at dusk.

Additional Notes

It’s the Civic Holiday Weekend (aka: John Galt Day long weekend), so here are the holiday hours for City of Guelph services and facilities, and here are the holiday hours specifically for Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health.

Guelph and Wellington County were two participants in the creation of the Regional EV Charging Network Strategy to direct the construction of infrastructure to support the shift to electric vehicles.

The University of Guelph is one of six universities to make the Top 50 list of Canada’s Best Employers for Diversity according to Forbes magazine.

The Guelph Wellington Local Immigration Partnership is looking for participants to fill out a survey. If you have moved to Canada in the last five years, they’re curious about your use of the local library.

Maeve Hind and Alexa Collette, who work collectively as Outlet, were awarded through Guelph Arts Council‘s Pay It Forward fund for a program to get at-risk youth engagement in the community through the arts.

Our Food Future is making ten $2,000 grants available to inspire more community food production to help people participate in growing and accessing nutritious food, and getting more local food to the table with less environmental impact.

Metrolinx thinks you need an etiquette lesson.

Did win a prize in the 2022 Rotary Club Duck Race? Find out!

The new session will open at Queen’s Park on Tuesday August 9 with a Speech from the Throne delivered by Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Dowdeswell.

New and Upcoming Construction

Construction of the Hanlon Creek splash pad and new washrooms has been delayed and the City of Guelph is now expecting that they will be able to open the public by the end of August.

The installation of groundwater monitoring wells at Peter Misersky Park and Joe Veroni Park is now underway. Once crews are finish at Peter Misersky Park , they will move to Joe Veroni Park. Trails and park access will be occasionally interrupted during installation.

Lane reductions began on July 26 on Wellington Street near Macdonell as a pilot project to create more road safety and reduce collisions. They will remain in place until the end of the year.

The intersection at Speedvale and Dawson will be closed for two weeks starting on Tuesday August 2 for the replacement of watermains. Silvercreek will be affected from Edinburgh Road to Silvercreek Parkway, and Dawson will be closed from Willow to Campbell Road.

The sidewalk on the eastern side Wilson Street will be closed for about six weeks starting on Tuesday August 2 as 6 Carden Street undergoes roof replacement and improvements.

There will be lane reductions on Wyndham Street South between Farquhar and Carden from 7 am to 12 pm on Wednesday August 3 as crews work on the stabilization of the Drill Hall.

There will be lane reductions on Lowes Road West between Gordon and Dawn for two weeks starting on Wednesday August 3  for the repavement of the road surface there.