The Airdrie and District Tennis Association (ADTA) plans to make the city a better place.
ADTA president Chris Simnett presented the Association’s short- and long-term plans to City council on May 16.
“Airdrie wouldn’t be as a good a city if it weren’t for the recreational facilities,” he said.
Since its inception in 2010, the Association has introduced 700 children to tennis, held five free Try Tennis activities, participated in Extreme FX and Go Girl!, held school programs at Ralph McCall School and R.J. Hawkey School, and a spring lesson program at East Lake Park.
“Seven hundred kids… is phenomenal,” said Mayor Peter Brown.
“Thank you for opening this up to all ages. It is great for the community.”
The Association plans to put up windscreens around the East Lake Park courts, build more courts in the city, start a tennis club, build a clubhouse and eventually build indoor courts.
“It would be so great to have indoor courts in Airdrie so we can promote the sport year-round,” said Simnett.
“Community tennis clubs allow for affordable and accessible sporting options where everyone can play and no one is turned away.”
The Safe Airdrie Partnership, formerly the Airdrie Anti-Vandalism Committee, plans to switch gears. Hal Gordon, member of the Partnership, said the committee accomplished what it set out to do.
“Since then, we needed to decide where to focus our time, money and energy,” he said.
In 2006, the Committee was formed in response to increasing rates of vandalism and graffiti in the community.
Robbie White, with the Airdrie social planning unit, said during the first three years, the Anti-Vandalism Committee achieved a great amount of success by creating the Neighbourhood Incentive Program, a public behaviour bylaw, a new skate park, increased summer bike patrol and the addition of two RCMP Community Resource Officers.
“All of these initiatives resulted in a drop in vandalism cases and an increase in the percentage of people charged in vandalism-related offences,” said White. “In 2010, the Anti-Vandalism Committee was renamed the Safe Airdrie Partnership to reflect the broader goal of safety and community connectedness. In the last year or so, the Partnership has struggled with its purpose and decided it would be more effective when responding to issues identified by the community, rather than trying to create responses to issues that may or may not be important to the people of Airdrie.”
Alderman Kelly Hegg said he was pleased with the work of the Partnership.
“It is nice to see that the committee (was created) out of a need in the community and you guys basically worked yourselves out of a job,” he said. “You are creating a sense of community.”
The Partnership will continue the Neighbourhood Incentive Program, which provides groups with funds to build the community’s spirit; the Safety Airdrie Toolkit; the Airdrie Safe website and responding to community concerns.
Mark Locking, director of engineering and public works, told City council the medical co-response program the Airdrie Fire Department has been using for the past month has already saved at least one life. City council approved the transfer of $30,000 from the general operating reserves to provide medical training for the Airdrie Fire Department, April 18.
“We knew there would be some benefits,” said Locking.
“The worst–case scenario happened last week and we responded to a cardiac arrest. We were the first on scene and we probably saved that individual’s life.”
The new program ensures all fire crews are trained to the Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) standard.
This standard provides CPR with automated external defibrillator, oxygen therapy, airway management, spinal immobilization, diagnostics and the administration of medications.
Airdrie Emergency Services had a fully integrated system until July 1 when the Province took over the control of ambulances.
City staff assured council the pedestrian bridge on the south side of Yankee Valley Boulevard near Main Street would be repaired this summer.
Hegg said a number of residents have brought up concerns about the fact that there is no connectivity for pedestrians from the east to the west on the south side of the city.
“What are the plans for a pedestrian bridge for people walking across Yankee Valley without pedestrian pathway?” asked Hegg.
Lorne Stevens, director of community infrastructure, said the existing bridge will be repaired as soon as possible.
“The most cost-effective solution is to take advantage of the existing pedestrian bridge on the south side of Yankee Valley,” he said.
The bridge was closed for about three months because of a concern about erosion of the abutments.
“We had to wait for the water level to come down and the frost to get out of the ground,” said Stevens.
“Summers are short enough as it is and we see this as an important link in the pathway system. We are working our hardest to get that up and running again.”
The City of Airdrie is now offering dark fibre leasing opportunities to third-party consumers.
Dark fibre is unused optical fibre infrastructure that is not connected to any network hardware, according to Jay Stoudt, of technical services.
“The City of Airdrie began installing its own fibre optic infrastructure in 2003, which has grown into several segments throughout the city,” he said. “The goal was to connect City-owned facilities with secure high speed fibre as well as to provide a fibre ring infrastructure offering 100 per cent redundancy in the event of any disruptions.”
He said fibre installations range from 12 to 48 pairs depending on the segment and the City has lit up six to 12, leaving capacity for growth or lease opportunities. The City owns more than 13 kilometres of fibre and is projected to expand to more than 30 kilometres in the next five years.
Two Internet Services Providers recently approached staff and Stoudt said potential revenue is about $10,000 in 2011.
“A council strategic priority for 2011 is to connect people and places,” he said. “Leasing of dark fibre would link to the vision because it will connect people using the Internet and phone systems.”
