Opening remarks were made by Chairman Dick Watts to welcome about 50 people to the meeting. Special guests were welcomed and introduced. They included: Councillor Palacio’s executive assistant Mike Foderick; Tony Ruprecht’s representative Appoline Aldea; St. Clair West BIA representative Barbara Snow; and RHRA Webmaster, Art Dacks.

Reports and Discussion

1. Heritage & History
   
   
   1. “St. Clair West in Pictures” possible third printing and Dufferin/St Clair Library, naming of program room –Dick Watts reported that a letter of response to our two requests was received a couple of months ago stating that the Library feels the requests are reasonable and will be considered at a future board meeting.
   
   
   
   2. Regal Road School portico plaque – Harry Lay reported that the request to have a plaque mounted on the portico, to acknowledge the restoration of the portico and the origins of the school including the colonist Bartholomew Bull who first owned the land, has been approved by the School Board. Mary Bull, a descendent of Mr Bull, has agreed to fund a major portion of the cost of the plaque measuring 24” x 15”.
   
   
   
   3. Earlscourt History Club – David Raymont reported that the next club meeting will be Wednesday May 23rd at OCI. A workshop on ‘how to discover the history of your home’ will be led by Elizabeth Cuthbert, City of Toronto Archivist. All interested are welcome to attend. Suggestions for future topics for presentation are welcome. A volunteer treasurer is being sought…please speak to David Raymont if interested.
   
   
   
2. Street Beautification
   
   
   1. Gardens & Graffiti – Florence Watts reported and extended thanks to the many community volunteers who have helped throughout the year on different gardening projects. These include: clean up and planting of Daffodil Hill, maintenance of 21 plant barrels located throughout Regal Heights, planting and maintenance of the Springmount gardens (especially the grass cutting by John Keating and Severino Centritto), maintenance of the OCI parking lot entrance garden, graffiti cleaners, and transferring of the rose bushes from the library parkette to OCI. Donated plants have been received from the Parks department, Yorkville Whole Foods, St. Clair West BIA, pine tree saplings from Charles Caccia, and lots of support from Councillor Palacio's office. Wendy Fletcher and Gord Hart received special mention for the development and maintenance of the Rosemount gardens. Wendy and Gord will be moving out of the area, and a RHRA thank-you gift for all their dedication was accepted by Wendy.
   
   
   
   2. Litter & Street Cleaning – John Keating reported that the April Clean–up day was a great success. A record number of some 40 volunteers showed up to do a wonderful job of picking up debris from the streets. Thanks to: Greg Woodbury who stepped in for co-ordinator John K., to Tony Bolla who provided PR on his MySt.Clair.com website, to Councillor Palacio’s office for assistance with the equipment and garbage pick-ups, and to all the volunteers that came out. Please keep up the enthusiasm by continuing to pick up garbage in the neighbourhood to help keep it looking clean and beautiful.
   
   
   
   3. Street Cleaning – John Keating reported on the pilot project that begins soon for those streets that have parking exclusively on one side of the road. On the 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month from April to November cars will be required to park on the opposite side of the street to permit cleaning by the mechanical street sweeper. Streets affected in our neighbourhood include: Burlington, Highview, Mount Royal, Regal, and Thome. Streets with permanent parking on both sides are not included at this time. For further info contact Mike Foderick at 416-392-7011.
   
   
   
   4. Tree Removals – many of our trees are reaching the end of their lifespan. The City has a policy in place to replace trees that are cut down. The process does take a while. If you have a tree nearing it’s end consider having a new tree planted before the old tree is removed.
   
   
   
   5. Great Gardens Contest 2007 – Elizabeth Cinello provided nomination forms for recognizing the gardening efforts of your neighbours. Deadline for nominations is Tuesday July 3, 2007. For more information call 416-394-8553
   
   
   
3. Use of the RHRA e-mail Service
   
   David Shanoff recommended that the current practice of RHRA to distribute, upon request, e-mail information which may be of interest to RHRA members be continued, but that information of a political or commercial nature should not be distributed. The meeting agreed that this should be RHRA policy.



4. Special Events
   
   
   1. Brian MacConnell reported on three events that take place each year in Regal Heights: the Carol Sing in December in the OCI parkette, the annual Street Sale, co-ordinated by Lina DeFelice, to be held this year on Saturday June 23rd, and the Canada Day Parade to be held this year at 1pm on Sunday July 1st. (The change in time to 1 pm was decided by the meeting to avoid conflict with church-time),
   
   
   
   2. 1st annual Regal Heights Street Party, Sat. June 23 – Karl Brown reported that a permit will be obtained to close Glenholme Ave to vehicular traffic from 3 pm until 11 pm. Games, a DJ, a stage and an evening potluck supper will be part of the festivities. Families will be asked to give $20, individuals $10 to help defray the costs of the permit and equipment to be rented for the day. Judy Adler will co-ordinate the potluck. The official start time of the party will be 3 pm.
   
   
   
5. Planning and Zoning
   
   
   1. Mount Royal Parkette The principal objective of the renovation is to provide an attractive children’s play area. A meeting at 39 Mount Royal, residence of Nadia Sapiro, will be held on Wednesday May 23rd at 6:30 pm to discuss greening and materials details. Questions or comments on "greening and materials details" may be directed toAmy Bodman at 416-653-0055 or abodman@sympatico.ca. Questions or comments on basic planning and construction should be directed to Mike Foderick at 419-392-7011.
      
      
   2. St.Clair transit ROW & hydro undergrounding timing schedule from Winona to Dufferin– Dick Watts and Mike Foderick reported that current target schedules are as follows:
      
      
      1. installation of underground hydro wires in existing conduit pipes from Westmount to Dufferin: Summer 2007;
      2. track removal and replacement Westmount to Dufferin: begins Fall 2007;
      3. hydro undergrounding Winona to Westmount: Spring 2007 to Spring 2008;
      4. track removal and replacement Winona to Westmount: begins Spring 2008;
      5. project completion: end of 2008.
      
      
      
   3. St. Clair “Avenue Study” – Mike Foderick reported that draft reports have been prepared by the consultants and are now being reviewed by the City. A community consultation meeting to discuss the reports is expected to be held sometime late this summer or early fall.
   
   
   
6. Finances and Membership
   
   

   General Operations Account
   In bank account	$560
   Petty cash	$201
   Membership fees tonight	$330
   Sub-total	$1091
   Heritage Fund	$805
   Total RHRA funds	$1896
   Total memberships paid for 2007-2008	47




7. Other
   
   
   1. Regal Rd School space problem & impact on day-care & early-ed programs – Linda De Giorgio reported that extra classroom space is required due to the Ministry of Education mandate to cap classroom sizes at 20 students in the lower grades. The Care Bears Co-op, Ascot Daycare Centre and Parenting Centre held a meeting last night to discuss the impacts. Current indications are that the Parenting Center may have to move to a basement room.
   
   
   
   2. Noise survey – Dick Watts reported that a very quick, e-mail survey of RHRA members indicates that the most annoying noises in the community are vehicular noise and leaf blower noise. The results have been sent to Toronto Municipal Licensing and Standards as requested by MLS.
   
   
   
   3. New Street-name signs – Mike Foderick displayed a prototype of the approved new street-name signs to be installed whenever old signs need replacing. Neighbourhoods may be able to have a logo or area-name written above the street name at no charge. This issue will be further discussed at the next executive meeting in September.
   
   
   
   4. Regal Rd School lay-by – a few copies of the revised drawing of the planned lay-by for Regal Road School were distributed. Apparently electronic copies were very difficult to read and therefore have not been sent out.
   
   
   
   5. Traffic problems – can be brought to the attention of Mike Foderick 419-392-7011 or raised at the next Police meeting on June 7th at OCI at 7pm
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. Election of 2007-2008 RHRA Executive Committee
   
   David Raymont, Past Chairman of RHRA, conducted the election Any Executive member who has attended at least 3 meetings in the past year is automatically nominated to stand for re-election to the executive committee. There were no further nominations or volunteers. The following thirteen members of the present executive committee were re-elected: Brent Calhoun, Richard Cavanagh, Rosa Cordiano, Linda De Giorgio, John Keating, Anita Kung, Harry Lay, Brian MacConnell, Beth Marcilio, Peter Norman, David Raymont, Florence Watts, Dick Watts.
   
   Any RHRA member is welcome to attend executive meetings.
   
   Elizabeth Cinello requested that there be a discussion at the next General Meeting on limitations of the powers of the Executive to make decisions and policy on behalf of the entire membership.



9. The meeting ended at 9:20 pm.

Next regular Executive Meeting: September 18th at Watts’ place, 57 Regal Rd.