1. Heritage & History
1. Library Murals – The restoration of all of Doris McCarthy murals at Dufferin/St. Clair library has been completed. The George Reid murals restoration is in process. They look magnificent. All the mural restorations are to be completed before the rest of the planned library renovation is to begin. A public meeting will be held prior to the construction. David Self and John McCauley were presented with an RHRA certificate and some paint flakes from the mural restorations in recognition of their untiring efforts in initiating the project.
2. Regal Road School Portico – Harry Lay arranged for construction documents to be submitted to the School Board in August with estimated costs of repairing the portico. Next spring may be the earliest possible start date now as the repairs are weather sensitive. Harry and Mike will continue to follow up on the issue and will try to ensure that City grant money will remain available if the work cannot be done this fall. Plans to cut a lay-by for buses have been delayed until the spring.
3. Earlscourt History Club – two meetings have been held at the Dufferin/St. Clair library. The club focus still is being developed. Hopefully Regal Heights will be used as their center starting point. The next meeting will be on October 10th in the evening. All interested are welcome to attend. David Raymont will be sending out a notice.
4. Oakwood mural at LCBO – the mural painted by students of OCI six years ago has deteriorated and was removed from the wall of the LCBO a few weeks ago by a City works crew.



2. Street Beautification
1. Gardens & Street planters – 4 new barrels have been purchased to replaced damaged ones. The St. Clair West BIA nominated the Rosemount Gardens for a Toronto Clean and Beautiful award this year. Wendy and Gord will attend a reception next week to accept the recognition. Three winners from ward 17 were announced by the Etobicoke-York Front Yard Garden judging committee: 42 Northcliffe, 57 Regal, and 54 Oakwood. A certificate presenting ceremony will take place in November at the Old Mill. The garden at the Springmount steps is thriving despite all the construction going on in the area. Special thanks to John Keating and Severino Centritto for cutting the grass on the boulevard this year. Daffodil Hill clean–up and bulb planting will take place this year on Sunday October 22nd at 10 am. Volunteers are urged to come and help. Please wear sturdy shoes and bring a round-mouth shovel if possible. OCI has new sidewalks and steps and new sod has been laid as well.
2. Graffiti – there has been a general improvement in the condition of mailboxes. A mural at 2 Regal Road has been proposed in order to stop graffiti at that location. Mike is waiting for approval from the owner of 2 Regal Road before this can proceed.
3. Garbage Spills – putrid smells from spills from the garbage collecting trucks is a frequent complaint made to the City. Should residents find this to be the case along their street after garbage collection, they can call Mike at the Councillor's office to request cleaning to be done. (416-392-7011).
4. Trees Toronto –The Dovercourt Group is mapping the urban forest in this district. They are available to do presentations on their work.
5. New Street-cleaning program – Councillor Palacio has set up a new program where cars will be requested to park on specific sides of the street to allow for unobstructed cleaning of the curb area on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday or Thursday of each month. A detailed schedule will be sent out when plans are finalized.



3. Homelessness and Affordable Housing - Dick received a call from the City of Toronto Affordable Housing Office asking for input on how to approach neighbourhoods re the introduction of affordable housing. Davenport Perth Community Center is also doing a study on homelessness and is looking for interested persons to be involved. A small group was struck: Peter, Nathan, Mike F., Dick and Rosa. They will work with Davenport Perth and send affordable housing suggestions to the Affordable Housing Office.



4. Planning and Zoning
   1. Mount Royal Parkette – On June 19th a concept plan was approved for the parkette. It has gone to tender and construction is expected this fall.
   2. St. Clair Transit and street improvements
      1. Northcliffe Glenholme Stops – petitions to keep TTC stops on both the north and south side of Northcliffe and Glenholme are being circulated by RHRA communications. Presently detailed designs of the ROW are only being made as far west as Vaughan Rd. Public discussion of the Northcliffe-Glenholme stops may take place this fall.
      2. hydro undergrounding & street improvements – hydro undergrounding has been approved by Council for selected areas in 2006. Final approval for the remaining areas is to be confirmed in each subsequent annual budget. Corso Italia BIA is proposing to spend ˝ million to beautify their part of St. Clair with new benches etc. They are hoping that Council will match what they are willing to spend.
   3. St. Clair Avenue Study – The advisory meetings are now complete. The consultants are in the process of writing reports to present to the City with their recommendations. An additional public meeting is expected during the finalization process.
   4. 28 Winona – The Community Council rejected the proposed building project for 28 Winona. Mr Gomez has not appealed to the OMB. The City is looking into the feasibility of acquiring part of the land for a city-owned laneway.
   5. 21 Lauder – The renovations continue at a slow pace. The owner is projecting that the landscaping will be completed this fall. This project has brought to light the need for changes to be made to provincial legislation re long-duration of construction/renovation projects.
   6. Roseneath Gardens Parkette – This site, north of No Frills on Alberta Ave, is privately owned. A former owner entered into a 10 yr. lease with the City to use it as a park. The lease is soon to expire and the new owner wishes to build homes on the land. There is much opposition to the planned development as it would mean the loss of scarce green space from this area. The City is now negotiating with the owner re acquisition of the land.
   
   
   
5. Schools - it was agreed that RHRA should have liaison with school councils to maintain and build up the relationship between the school and the community. Linda De Giorgio agreed to be our representative to the Regal Road School Council. We are looking for someone to liase with OCI School Council.



6. Finances –there is $555 in the operating fund, and $805 in reserve for heritage projects.



7. Membership – the annual cost is still $10 per family. We have 41 families registered so far for the 2006-2007 year. An application form will be sent out soon to former members who have not renewed.



8. Other
1. RHRA Boundaries – We have received requests to include the west side of Winona in the RHRA area. It was agreed that this change should be made.
2. Policy on supporting candidates- We have received a request to publicize a "parlour meeting" in an RHRA member's home to meet one of the candidates for city council. After discussion, we adopted the following policy: " RHRA maintains a neutral position on candidates and political parties in municipal, provincial and federal elections, and we do not use our communication services to broadcast political information other than to notify our mailing list of all-candidates meetings."
3. Meeting dates – the executive meetings will continue on the 3rd Tuesday of each month. Dick will look into reserving OCI for the public meetings to be held on the third Tuesday in November and May.
4. Carol Sing date – to be held on Friday December 15th, 2006
5. Solar Sculpture project – St. Clair West BIA is co-ordinating the building of 6 solar-lit sculptures to be displayed in six concrete planter boxes on St. Clair. A call for artist submissions will be made to produce the first sculpture this year. Monies from our previous light- up-St. Clair efforts will be put towards this project. Further details available at www.stclairsolarart.com.
6. Light around schools – TDSB has a policy to turn out the lights after the last teacher leaves the building. Lights can be left on for safety reasons upon request. Complaints have been received about undesirable activity in the OCI and Regal Road schoolyard areas after dark. Mike will write a letter to the TDSB requesting the lights be left on.

Next Meeting: Tuesday October 17, 2006 at the Marcilio residence, 79 Regal Road at 7:30 pm.