NELCE Project – Redevelopment of Ed Blake Park

The last few weeks have been rather quiet in the park.   It’s not that they have not been working, there just have not been any large trucks and therefore nothing ‘really’ exciting to take pictures of or write about.   The quiet work has been centered on the field house, quite an interesting building.  There have been lots of people working very hard on this building for many weeks.

It has an interesting angled roof which as they were constructing it looked somewhat odd.  I noticed this evening while I was out walking that the roof has been covered in grass, they actually planted grass on the roof.  I was told this is called a ‘green roof’, I had to do some quick reading about this.  My quick reading said it helps the buildings blend into the natural surroundings, they look nicer, and create habitats for butterflies and small birds.  The green roofs also absorb rain water that would otherwise be runoff.  The vegetation absorbs noise and it also helps regulate air temperatures.  Wow, how’s that for modern and environmental.

This picture was taken a couple of days ago I’ll have to go for another walk tomorrow (with my camera) and take some new pictures.

What got me and my camera out to the park was the return of the noice.  Finally after several weeks of quiet field house building the trucks returned this week.  They weren’t very big trucks and there were only a few of them but they were really noisy.  They were the dirt compacting machines that they use to smooth out areas before they pave or pour concrete (soon I hope).  They smoothed out several circular areas near the field house that will be for the playground and the splashpad and another small area beside the soccer field at the highschool end of the park that isn’t in the plan.   They were also working on some of the pathways. 

Progress is happening…for those of us watching it everyday it seems far…to…slow…but it is starting to look very exciting.

Hi, I’m Joan Rose. 
I’m a new member of the NELCE group and happen to live across the street from Ed Blake Park.

It’s definitely time for some updates to this blog.  Thanks to KC for the idea and getting it started, I hope I can keep everyone up to date with the progress.  There has been LOTS of activity in the park since that first report. 

The fences went up (all the way around the park –that’s a lot of fencing) and the big trucks moved in.  Anyone close by will be very familiar with the booms, bangs and beepings of large trucks, early in the morning and all day long.  The kids love to watch them! 

The next step appeared to be leveling the ground.  The graders and diggers went round and round and round digging and leveling over and over again.  The one week dump trucks were coming and going constantly.  I think they were just bringing loads in not taking any away.  The far side of the park has several VERY large piles of dirt.  For a few weeks that was the only action we saw and heard.  The kids thought the giant dirt piles would make great toboggan hills or dirt bike mountains.

What once was a very large grassy field is now……without grass

This is what the field currently looks like

 Finally the construction on the field house began.  It  is beginning to take shape…an odd shape at this point but certainly progressing.

More updates to come as the project continues to grow and develop.

My name is KC van Goozen and I am one of the students from École secondaire Gabriel-Dumont, located on Huron Street, that produced the video on Ed Blake Park for NELCE’s entry in the AVIVA Community Fund competition.  For any of you who has not yet seen this video, please check it out this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGhlTgsanMQ

And the construction work has begun!  On April 1st, right after the funding came in for the Redevelopment of Ed Blake Park project,  a City crew came out and removed the playground equipment, in order to get the land ready for the next phase of construction work.  The playground equipment will  receive a new coat of paint and it will be reinstalled in the Park, in September 2010, when the redevelopment project is scheduled to be completed and the park reopens to the public.  In the next week or so, the fences will be put up, and the machines started.  I am excited about this project, and can’t wait to meet the contractor.

As a member of the Neighbourhood Development Action Area Committee, I am going to keep an eye on construction work being done at Ed Blake Park, from beginning to end.  I plan to have a weekly news update for you on this blog page.  In the summer, while I am away, I will ask a good friend of mine to keep it going. If you are interested in learning more about this project, or participating in one of the short films we plan to make, please write to me at goozenk@live.com.

In the meantime, I hope you will join me each week as I  follow the progress of this project.

KC van Goozen