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© Clive Doucet 2006

Heron Park is a large diverse neighbourhood in the south end of Capital Ward. Creation of a community centre in the Heron Park fieldhouse, the outdoor Bocce court on Kaladar, new traffic lights at Bank and Randall are all improvements to the Heron Park neighbourhood over the past few years.

Successes

Community Centre
Key agreement for the fieldhouse to use as a community centre.

Bank and Randall Traffic Lights
In Heron Park the intersection of Randall and Bank was recently rebuilt. Where school kids and adults used to dodge across six lanes of heavy traffic, there are now four lanes, and a large, safe median resting place with broad sidewalks and two and half meter boulevards on either side. This is a very welcome and needed re-balancing of street uses in a community like Heron Park which is bordered by a six-lane Bank Street and divided by a four-lane Heron Road.

Sawmill Creek and City Stream Watch
One of the treasures of south Ottawa is the Sawmill Creek watershed. From the creek mouth just east of Bank Street the waterway winds behind the apartment buildings, runs underground across Bank and the Transit Way to emerge in Heron Park running south through the park under Heron Road and south towards Hunt Club Road.

City Stream Watch is a program to monitor the environoment and water of urban streams. Staffed mostly by volunteers, repeated surveys are made of flora and fauna and the data compiled for different times of the year. Work is also undertaken to preserve the watershed.

On a warm Saturday morning in April (2005) I joined volunteers in planting new dogwood and pine trees along the east bank of the creek to help stop erosion.

For more about the streamwatch program
http:www.rideauvalley.on.ca/programs/streamwatch/index.html

Challenges

Traffic
Bank Street and Heron Road continue to function as quasi-highways with high volumes of traffic and speeds far exceeding posted limits. New sidewalks and additional stop signs would afford seniors (and all pedestrians) security, a luxury they do not now enjoy. I continue to work on having the city reduce the speed limit to 50 km/h. The pedestrian-friendly rebuild of the Bank and Randall intersection has significantly improved pedestrian safety and will be a template for further such improvements in Heron Park.