Third Street S.W. CTrain station opens for business

The new Third Street S.W. CTrain station opened for business today. The platform is the fourth to open as part of the Seventh Avenue Refurbishment project with Fourth Street S.W. expected to be completed early in 2011.

Featuring better lighting and improved accessibility to both Transit and surrounding buildings, the station has been the most anticipated in the downtown to date because of its proximity to popular commercial and business centres.

“This particular station is the hub of the downtown LRT corridor and is our busiest station with about 16,000 users per day,” said Mac Logan, Director of Transportation Infrastructure.

The new station is a first for the Refurbishment project in that it integrates storefronts with the platform. The City worked closely with 20 Vic Property Management to coordinate the renovations resulting in a complimentary streetscape.

The Refurbishment project is intended to improve the functionality of the corridor as well as its aesthetic appeal. In addition to new platforms, corridor upgrades include streetscape and sidewalk improvements, upgrades to street furnishings, modified bus bays and tree planting.

According to Logan, the completion of Third Street station marks the midpoint for the reconstruction of the corridor, with the next phase being to improve stations on the east and west ends of downtown.

Shred and recycle paper - for environment and safety

Calgarians are being urged to protect their personal information and the environment at the same time by recycling shredded paper.

“Shredded paper can be properly recycled in blue carts or at community recycling depots,” says Paula Magdich, The City’s Blue Cart Recycling Program Leader. “People just need to remember to place it in a clear plastic bag so it can be easily separated at the recycling sorting facility.”

Shredding paper prior to recycling is a way to protect oneself from identity theft, one of the fastest-growing crimes in Canada.

Throwing unopened mail in a recycling bin can put you at great risk for criminals using your information to impersonate you and engage in other fraudulent activity at your expense.

The Alberta Motor Association (AMA) has partnered with the Calgary Police Service, the RCMP and Shred It to host several public shredding events, providing Calgarians an opportunity to get rid of personal documents the right way.

Shredding events open to citizens (not businesses) will be held on:
Saturday, March 13, 2010, from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. at the following locations:

• AMA Calgary Sunridge centre: 3650 - 20 Ave. N.E.
• AMA Shawnessy centre: 600 85 Shawville Blvd. S.E.
• AMA Crowfoot Crossing 130 Crowfoot Tc. N.W. (Southeast of Montana’s)
  

Saturday, April 3, 2010, from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. at:

• AMA Calgary Main centre: 4700 17 Ave. S.W.
• Southcentre Mall: 100 Anderson Rd. S.E.)
• Calgary Police Service District 1 Ramsay Office:1010 26 Ave. S.E.
  

Recycle shredded paper by:

• Placing it in a clear plastic bag and tying the bag closed.
• You can use any clear bag – see-through produce bags, bread bags and even dry cleaning bags will do the trick.
• Shredded credit cards and CDs are not recyclable. They should be placed in the garbage.

Calgary Students take part in Safety Expo

If you’re in the Municipal Building over the next two days, you’ll see the excitement of thousands of school learning about safety.

On March 10 and 11, about 3,200 Grade 4 to 7 Calgary students will be attending Safety Expo in the Municipal Atrium and other nearby venues. The event will feature more than 35 interactive booths, five workshops, “Education Corner” presentations and hands-on learning opportunities.

“A disturbing number of children suffer from injuries from misusing appliances and electrical outlets,” said Bill Bruce, Director of Animal and Bylaw Services. “This expo gives kids the tools to help them make good, safe decisions, identify saftey concerns and report them which will reduce injuries.”

Since 2003, numerous partner organizations and volunteers have delivered safety awareness to tens of thousands of Calgary school children.

The Grade 4-7 students are a perfect target audience when it comes to safety.

Led by Animal & Bylaw Services, a multi-agency committee organized the Safety Expo. Committee partners include ENMAX, the Calgary Fire Department, the Calgary Police Service, Alberta Health Services (EMS), the Girl Guides of Canada, Safer Calgary, Campus Calgary: City Hall School, Youthlink Calgary and St. John Ambulance.

Students from Calgary Catholic, public, private and charter schools are invited to attend the event. Attendance is free and bus fees are paid for by ENMAX.

During Safety Expo each year, the Jim Gray Safer Calgary Awards are also announced. The annual awards honour groups and individual Calgarians for their contributions to violence prevention, injury prevention and safety in the natural or built environment.

Calgary Helps Frank Help Haitian Orphanage

Orphaned girls in Haiti will receive much needed help because The City of Calgary, City of Windsor and artists nation-wide are teaming up to raise funds.

In the wake of the quake that debilitated the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, Beth Gignac, manager of Arts and Culture with The City of Calgary recalled a gentleman named Frank Chauvin from her hometown of Windsor who had, in the late 1980’s, opened and ran an orphanage out of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince.

“My grandmother had volunteered there, and when the earthquake happened, the first person I thought of was Frank,” said Beth.

Upon further research, Beth learned that the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that hit on January 12, 2010 had severely damaged Le Foyer des Filles Chretiennes Orphanage.

Three girls and an employee died that day and the buildings were declared unsafe to live in.
“For the two weeks after the earthquake, I was devastated because I couldn’t get a hold of anyone,” said Frank, a former police detective from his Windsor home.

Eventually, he was able to speak with a woman who has run the orphanage since its inception and he heard first-hand of the extreme damage.

“She has a big mess on her hands – it’s definitely not safe for the kids,” he said. The girls are currently housed in tents in the compound and neighbouring lots.

“We have to rebuild and relocate to a safer, more stable area,” explained Frank, adding that a place has been found 20 kilometres outside the capital, and the building process is in place, once funds and a dwindling supply of materials arrive.

This is where the Cities of Windsor and Calgary stepped in.

Beth Gignac said that she was contacted by local artists about hosting a fundraising event shortly after news of the calamity broke. She contacted acquaintances at The City of Windsor who put her in touch with Councillor Jo-Anne Gignac (no relation to Beth).

“An extraordinary thing happened,” said Jo-Anne of Beth’s proposal to help Frank, a man who she’d never actually met. The two municipalities determined to assist these 70 or so Haitian girls and began making phone calls to artists in each community to see what support was available.

“There are a lot of great causes, in this case we know that every penny raised will help those girls in that orphanage in Port-au-Prince,” said Jo-Anne.

The result of the two Cities’ efforts is the Windsor Artists for Haiti Event on March 9, and Calgary’s Artists for Haitian Relief Event on March 10. There will also be a Calgary art exhibit fundraiser at the Axis gallery in Hotel Arts in April. Beth hopes these two events will raise at least $50,000 to go along with Windsor’s funds.

This is all a bit overwhelming to Frank, who said the cross-country events “Scared him at first” because he wasn’t accustomed to people fundraising for him. He preferred the neighbourly, spirit-of-community way of raising funds: having people approach him and offer their assistance by way of volunteering, or donating funds.

“This is big. The earthquake shook everything – we can’t walk away from it – we’ve got to go for it,” said Frank, almost at a loss for words, describing Haitian orphans today and what many Canadians will be doing over the upcoming weeks to help them. “We turn girls away every day . . . we’ve got to feed and educate these girls. These concerts....it’s just fantastic.”




Calgary Artists for Haitian Relief will be presented at the Jack Singer Concert Hall at the EPCOR CENTRE for the Performing Arts.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Doors open 7 p.m., performances start at 7:30 p.m.

Featured artists include:

• The Dudes
• Corb Lund
• Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra with Kris Demeanor
• Woodpigeon
• Michael Bernard Fitzgerald with his Loud Love Choir
• The Polyjesters and Denise Clarke
• Jan Lisiecki
• Sheri D. Wilson
• Bravo!FACT
• Cantos Music Foundation
• DJ Rob Faust
• Curiously Canadian Improv
  

Tickets for the event are $25. Available at EPCOR CENTRE for the Performing Arts Box Office

By phone (403) 294-9494 or online http://tickets.epcorcentre.org

Presented by Field Law

To learn more about helping Frank help Haiti, please visit helpfrankhelphaiti.org.


***Photos of Frank and Le Foyer des Filles Chretiennes Orphanage.

Calgary Transit Joins Forces with Calgary Police to collar auto thieves

Calgary Transit and the Calgary Police Service today launched a partnership aimed at cracking down on auto crime in the city. Calgary Transit will now use bait cars in its parking lots as an extra tool to capture car thieves and deter overall vehicle crime.

Since the Bait Car program was introduced by the Calgary Police Service in November 2008, car thefts have decreased significantly across the city.

“Calgary Transit has over 14,000 parking stalls in its parking lots and we’re confident this proactive program will further reduce auto crime, which has already dropped by about 50 per cent through the use of existing enforcement methods,” said Brian Whitelaw, Calgary Transit’s Coordinator of Public Safety and Enforcement. “This added tool makes it even more difficult for car thieves.”

“The message is simple. Steal a bait car and go to jail,” said Calgary police Staff Sgt. Colin Adair. “We have had a lot of success with this program as part of the overall auto theft strategy.”

The Calgary Police Service and Calgary Transit approach the issue of auto crime with a combination of education, awareness, prevention and enforcement, including the Calgary Police Service High Enforcement Auto Theft Team (HEATT) as well as the efforts of field personnel.

A bait car is a vehicle owned by the police in partnership with Intact Insurance and is intended to be stolen. After a bait car is stolen, the location, speed, and direction of travel of the vehicle is monitored by police dispatchers at Public Safety Communications through GPS tracking.

All activity in a bait car is caught on audio and video. The dispatcher will coordinate a police response. Once officers are in position to safely apprehend the bait car and driver, the engine will be disabled at the click of a mouse button which allows for the quick arrest of the car thieves.

Bait cars will be stationed at various locations throughout Calgary and Calgary Transit park and ride lots. Locations are determined by vehicle theft and property crime trends.

Calgary Transit and the Calgary Police Service have also partnered with the Alberta Motor Association (AMA) on the educational campaign to increase awareness on bait cars and vehicle theft. Bait car billboards are running in several locations throughout Calgary including on buses and signage in parking lots.

Taking City's LEAD to Ethiopia

The youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow. It’s not just a cliché; it’s a universal truth. And just as effective leaders can have far-reaching influence, so too can an effective leadership program. All the way to, say — Ethiopia.

Staff at The City of Calgary Recreation developed the LEAD program (Leadership, Empowerment, Achieving a Difference) to help local youth prepare to be leaders in their communities. The free leadership certification program offers youth from 12 to 17 the opportunity to build confidence, gain experience, interact with their peers and develop valuable leadership skills as they work through nine distinct training modules.

“Everyone is a leader in some way,” said Debbie White, community resource services co-ordinator and one of the biggest advocates for the program. “It’s a matter of recognizing those strengths and drawing them out.”

LEAD was designed to be flexible to the wants, needs and cultures of Calgary’s diverse population. That’s what made it particularly attractive to Burke Vindevoghel. Burke is a founding director of Strong Hearts Children’s Foundation, a non-profit youth-focused organization in Ethiopia.

When Burke approached The City to ask permission to bring LEAD to Ethiopia and try it out with his youth group there, Debbie and her colleagues in Recreation were thrilled at the prospect of sharing their resource.

“What’s exciting to me is the reach of this program,” said Debbie. “We’ve already had about 300 youth participate here in Calgary. That’s wonderful but just think. Youth all over the world could benefit from this.”

LEAD has been well received here at home yet, as Burke explained, in some ways this type of leadership program is almost more important to kids in Ethiopia.

“Most Canadian kids grow up believing they have the potential to make something of their lives. When you’re growing up in Ethiopia, families and friends don’t talk much about potential.”

The goal of Strong Hearts Children’s Foundation is to bring youth together as a community and grow hope. “To affect a huge change in the mentality there,” said Burke.

While Calgary Recreation’s LEAD program is giving Calgary’s youth a genuine head start, it’s helping open a world of possibility to Ethiopian youth more than 12,848 kilometres away.

***The City of Calgary's LEAD program makes a difference in Ethiopia.

Memorial Drive's Poppy Plaza coming along

With the groundbreaking ceremony on Saturday for Memorial Drive’s Soldiers’ Memorial, we thought we’d take a look at the Poppy Plaza, an award winning public space to be completed this fall.

The Poppy Plaza, which will be located along Memorial Drive and designed by the Marc Boutin Architectural Collaborative, is the first of many new public spaces to be created as part of the second phase of The City’s Memorial Drive: Landscape of Memory.

Doug Marter, The City’s Manager of Planning and Development, said the “fairly intense architectural features” should be well received by Calgarians.

Adjacent to the former Outdoor Resource Centre at 1111 Memorial Dr. N.W. (the old Fire Hall), the plaza commemorates Canada's efforts during wartime, while at the same time offers a much needed public gathering space which helps connect people with the river's edge.

Sean Knight, the plaza’s architectural project coordinator, said it will be a really interesting site, especially because it’s located at a gateway to downtown at the 10th Street Bridge, resides on the Bow River pathway and is adjacent to Kensington.

“The sculptural element will be a wall with perforated poppies and narratives cut into the wall of people’s experience of war,” he said. “It is multi-generational, and will commemorate sacrifices of war across a broader spectrum” such as of those who have fought in war and people who have lived in Calgary during wartimes.

The $7.9 million public space is part of the partially completed $31.5 million Landscape of Memories, which includes the new centre medians and runs from Centre Street to Point McKay across from Edworthy Park.

The space will include two folded surfaces, the first of weathering steel and the second a Balau wood surface as well as two interrelated places: a sociable space of interaction that extends the pedestrian-friendly Kensington neighbourhood and a more reflective space connected to the water’s edge and the pathway system.

The plaza has already won the Canadian Architect Award of Merit to go along with The City of Calgary’s Mayor’s Urban Design Award and The City of Calgary has submitted the project for consideration in the upcoming 2010 Royal Architectural Institute of Canada National Urban Design Awards – so stay tuned.

Memorial to Calgary’s fallen soldiers breaks ground

Using historical military entrenching tools at a ceremony today, Mayor Dave Bronconnier was joined by Colonel T.M. Putt, Commander 41 Canadian Brigade Group, to officially break ground on the Calgary Soldiers’ Memorial.

Calgary’s fallen soldiers with our army reserve regiments leave behind a rich and honoured legacy. The Calgary Soldiers’ Memorial pays tribute to their sacrifice and service made in World War 1, World War 2 and Afghanistan. Large stone tablets will list over 3000 soldiers who have died while serving their country, with the cap Badge of units displayed at the top

Initiated by The Calgary Highlanders in conjunction with their Centennial in 2010, the project encompasses all army reserve units based in Calgary (The King’s Own Calgary Regiment; 41 Combat Engineer Regiment;746 (Calgary) Communications Squadron;14 (Calgary) Service Battalion;15 Field Ambulance, Detachment Calgary).

The Memorial design was created by the Marc Boutin Architectural Collaborative and is and integral part of the larger Memorial Drive - Landscape of Memory project with The City. The Landscape of Memory consists of a nine kilometre corridor along Memorial Drive, that will include a series of interconnected public spaces to share the history and story of Calgary’s military, rededicated the founding purpose of Memorial Drive.

Scheduled for completion next fall, The Memorial is one of the first public space features being developed along the corridor. Located just west of Louise Bridge, the installation overlooks the Bow River towards the Mewata Armoury, the mustering point from which many Canadian soldiers departed to serve their country.

Funding for the Calgary Soldiers’ Memorial is through a number of sources in the public and private sectors, including corporations and service clubs, individuals and The City of Calgary Enmax Legacy Parks Program.

Occupant restraint road show comes to Calgary

Using a new vehicle rollover simulator, The Calgary Police Service showed the public at Olympic Plaza today, how important seatbelts are and how they save lives.

“It’s very real,’ said Jim Lebedeff, a constable with the Calgary Police Traffic Unit. “In an accident, the safest and best place to be is belted – and belted properly – in the vehicle.”

The rollover simulator demonstrates what happens to a person if they are not wearing a seatbelt in a rollover collision and how they are often thrown from their vehicle and crushed.

The poignant visual reminder is an effort to raise seatbelt awareness during Occupant Awareness Month.

Lebedeff said it’s a shame that with all the education, people still refuse to buckle-up and that the way vehicles are designed today “most people would survive the average crash if wearing a seatbelt.”

Occupant restraint facts:

• Research and collision investigations show that your chances of surviving a collision increase by 50 per cent when wearing an occupant restraint.
• According to Transport Canada, almost 40 per cent of drivers and passengers killed in a collision were not wearing their seatbelt at the time of the collision.
• The fine for not wearing a seatbelt is $115. Drivers are also responsible for any passengers under 16.
• Seatbelts save about 1,000 lives per year in Canada.
• Airbags only function properly when used with an occupant restraint. If you are not buckled-up properly, the airbag will likely cause an injury.
• In a collision, an unrestrained occupant increases the risk for all occupants in the vehicle.
• Vehicles are designed with an engineered life space which can withstand the force of most impacts. Seatbelts keep occupants in this space where they are safest.
• In Alberta, use of occupant restraints has increased from 88.9 per cent in 2007, to 92.9 per cent in 2009.
  

***Vehicle rollover simulator flings an occupant out of the truck's cab.
***Jim Lebedeff with a vehicle thats occupant died as a result of not buckling-up.

Spring Recreation guide available

The 2010 Spring recreation guide is now available. New for spring is an enhanced new Interactive Online Program Guide, that makes finding and registering for programs quick and easy.

“People can now search for a program by activity, location, or age,” said Gail Gibbons-Chomiak, a Marketing Strategist with Recreation.

The online registration is one more way to sign-up for classes, along with phoning in, filling out a form or simply walking to a facility in person.

The City of Calgary Recreation offers thousands of award winning programs at a variety of locations all over the city. Programs include dancing, art, hiking, sailing, birding, swimming and plenty more.

To register online, please call 403-268-3800 to obtain a PIN number and barcode.

Please visit calgary.ca/recreation for more information.

Garbage collection gets an overhaul

Automated black cart garbage collection pilot has been a great success and sets the tone for future expansion.

With it comes the near elimination of injuries inherent with garbage collection. Things like strained and sprained muscles and puncture wounds from sharp objects like broken glass, nails and needles in garbage bags.

The pilot project that began in October 2008 resulted in zero injuries to garbage collectors in the first year compared to 215 injuries related to hand collection from Oct. 1, 2008 to Sept. 30, 2009.

“I’m impressed and pleased with the results,” said Darcy Cairns, superintendent of Automated Collection for Waste & Recycling Services. He noted that the driving force behind black cart garbage collection was the improvement of health and safety for workers and citizens.

Automated collection uses trucks equipped with mechanical arms to collect garbage from wheeled carts. One of the main safety improvements is that workers no longer manually lift up to 13,000 kilograms of garbage a day.

“Automation is the modern way of doing things. We don’t dig ditches by hand anymore so why are we still collecting garbage by hand?” said Cairns.

There will continue to be some residential hand collection as citizens can place excess garbage bags beside the black carts for hand pickup. But the pilot showed that only 13 per cent of garbage collected was placed outside the carts.

The pilot, paid for by City health and safety funds, served 15,000 households in Cedarbrae, Citadel, Deer Run, Dover, Huntington Hills and Mount Pleasant.

Results showed that not only do black carts improve safety; they also keep neighbourhoods cleaner and are easy for citizens to use.

“We’ve definitely noticed cleaner back lanes as animals and birds are no longer able to get at the bags,” said Cairns.

Citizens who participated in the pilot appreciated not having to carry their garbage bags out to the lane or curb and found that they and their garbage collectors were safer because of reduced bag handling.

A survey of citizens participating in the pilot project found that 93 per cent were satisfied with black cart collection and 78 per cent found the cart was large enough to hold the amount of garbage they accumulate over a week.

Homes up to and including fourplexes will eventually receive a black cart along with detailed instructions on how to use it. The carts, similar to the Blue Carts used for recycling, are 59.1 centimetres (24 1/4 inches) wide, 74.4 cm (29 5/16 inches) long and 106.6 cm (42 inches) high. Each cart can hold the equivalent of three to four garbage bags. The carts remain the property of The City.

Black cart garbage collection comes at no extra cost to citizens.

Keeping your information safe online

The Internet is a unique environment where information can be accessed 24-hours-a-day. This means personal information has the potential of being used fraudulently, targeted for other criminal purposes, even while the computer is off and you are in the comfort and safety of your own home.

The Calgary Police Service would like to remind Calgarians to take precautions when posting personal information online, using e-mail accounts, shopping and conducting online banking.

Every year, millions of Canadians fall victim to online crimes. Education and prevention are key components to online safety.

The Calgary Police Service offers the following tips to allow you to be more web savvy when it comes to safety:

• Set up Google alerts for your name. This may notify you when something is posted on the Internet using your name. (Go to www.google.com/alerts, and enter in the email address you would like to receive alerts to, along with the information you would like alerts on. Other web alerts include www.searchalert.net and www.twilert.com).
• Don't give out your personal information unless you first find out how it's going to be used and how it will be protected.
• Type the site's name into a search engine: If you find unfavorable reviews posted, you may be better off doing business with a different seller.
• Conduct a credit bureau report annually.
• Be cautious about opening any attachments or downloading files from emails you receive. Don't open an email attachment — even if it looks like it's from a friend or co-worker — unless you are expecting it or know what it contains. If you send an email with an attached file, include a text message explaining what it is.
• Use privacy settings to restrict who can access and post on your website and social networking pages. Use these settings to limit who can view online profile, photos, etc.
• Do not publicly post your birth date (with the year), address or other identifying information that could be used by fraudsters or potential stalkers.
• Once you post information online, you can't take it back. Even if the information is deleted from a site, older versions may exist on other people's computers and be circulated online.
• Use different user names and passwords on each site you visit.
• Trust your instincts. Most sites have links where users can immediately report abusive, suspicious or inappropriate online behavior, ensure you do this if you have concerns.
• Be careful that any information used as password security questions should not be casual information shared with others.
• Use passwords that have at least eight characters and include numbers or symbols. The longer the password, the tougher it is to crack.
• Avoid common words. Some hackers use programs that can try every word in the dictionary.
• Don't use your personal information, your login name, or adjacent keys on the keyboard as passwords.
• Change your passwords regularly (at a minimum, every 90 days).
• Most importantly, use a different login/password for each online account you access. If hackers have your info, they will try to use it on other websites such as online banking and email accounts

What to do in an e-mergency:

• If you believe your computer has been compromised, immediately stop shopping, banking, and other online activities that involve user names, passwords, or other sensitive information.
• If possible print a copy of questionable content such as e-mail, IM history, website page or profile from social networking site. This may be useful as evidence one day. This information may not be up for long, so ensure you print it off as soon as you see it.
• Report concerns directly to the abuse departments for each website (for example abuse@facebook.com, abuse@myspace.com, etc.)
• If someone has been using your accounts, or information, be sure to print copies to show police when reporting. This information may not be up for long, so ensure you print it off as soon as you see it.
• Report fraud, hacking or a computer virus immediately. To fight computer criminals, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre needs to hear from you.
  

Resources

• Reporting Economic Crime On-Line RECOL enables you to file your complaint online, and forwards it to the appropriate law enforcement or regulatory agency and/or private commercial organization for potential investigation.
• Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre: phonebusters.com or 1-888-495-8501
• Competition Bureau
• Calgary Better Business Bureau

***Courtesy of Calgary Police Service