October 2009 Photo: Paul Dickie The sixth Annual Lumière Festival took place on August 8. More photos on pages 24-25. www.newedinburgh.ca NECA Wins National Heritage Award By NEN Staff toric places”. The actual nomi- als or groups across Canada for Break out the champagne! nation of NECA was submitted achievement in heritage advo- It’s a pleasure to report that by Heritage Ottawa, an impor- cacy and volunteering, and our community’s resolute tant advocate and educator for for projects that demonstrate and imaginative protection preserving the heritage build- a community’s commitment of the heritage character of ings and historic landscapes of to heritage conservation. The New Edinburgh has been for- Ottawa. award to NECA is in recogni- mally recognized by Heritage The HCF Achievement Award tion of several New Edinburgh Canada Foundation (HCF). is intended to honour individu- initiatives undertaken since Carolyn Quinn, Director of NECA worked with the City Communications at HCF, has to create the NE Heritage announced that NECA “has Conservation District in 2001. been selected to receive a A lot of determined and capa- Heritage Canada Foundation ble NE residents have been Achievement Award for pro- involved in a variety of ways. viding leadership in protecting As the background documen- and raising awareness about tation for the award noted, the New Edinburgh Heritage NECA maintains an active Conservation District.” NE Heritage & Development The HCF is a national non- Committee that promotes heri- governmental organization, tage and monitors/advises on based in Ottawa. Its mandate construction plans in accor- includes encouraging the pres- dance with the heritage district ervation and demonstration of guidelines; NECA has partici- Canada’s heritage. One way it pated forcefully in the debate does this is through its National on Ottawa’s intensification Awards Program, which aims policy; it helps mobilize com- to “recognize individuals and Historic New Edinburgh munity involvement to protect organizations whose work will now have an emblem! the heritage district (such as gives new life to Canada’s his- See page 2 for more details. Continued on Page 3 What’s Up at the Park? By NEN Staff in spring 2010. Other areas • Installation of boundary Plans are well underway for will continue to be fenced off fencing on NCC property, the remediation of contaminat- in order to give the new sod adjacent to the residential ed NCC lands in the park along a chance to take hold. These property line. The fencing Stanley Avenue. Construction areas should be reopened will jog around any trees will begin sometime this sometime in the summer/fall along the fence line; fall—as early as October—and of 2010. Tree planting will take • Constructing shallow over- should be completed sometime place in spring 2010 to allow land swales (dips in the in the spring of 2010 (or possi- the new turf cover to become ground) which follow exist- bly sooner). Because it will be well established. ing drainage patterns toward a construction site, with large The NCC’s remediation work the Rideau River and which trucks coming and going, the will be performed in all areas take advantage of seven entire area from the pathway where elevated levels of soil existing low points along near the playground to Union contaminants have been identi- the residential property line; Street will be fenced off and fied within 0.3 metres of the and there will be no access by the surface and will include the • Minimizing tree removal public. This also includes the following: through careful tree man- asphalt and stone dust path- • Capping with a minimum agement. ways used by cyclists, pedes- of 0.3 metres of clean soil Trees already in poor health trians and dog walkers. cover and surface vegetation will be removed prior to soil If all goes as planned, the to prevent human exposure capping. For each healthy tree asphalt pathways and off-leash to certain metals and hydro- to be removed, two trees of the areas of the park should reopen carbons; Continued on Page 13 Page 2 NEW EDINBURGH NEWS October 2009 NECA Designing an Emblem for the Burgh By Joan Mason This need has become more President Our beautiful community of urgent with every recent pass- Authority were disappointing New Edinburgh, and in partic- ing year, as ignorance and in terms of cost and design ular our Heritage Conservation greed threaten to wipe us off restrictions. So a profes- David Sacks District, is the steward of a the map. The menace is no sional graphic designer, Caren remarkable local history—a longer an American invasion Weinstein of Vintage Design, a Reports history tied to the beginnings but the developer’s bulldoz- former President of the Smith of Canada itself. er—paired with an insensitive Falls LACAC, agreed to work Bytown and New Edinburgh City government that would closely with us and create an New Edinburgh’s most press- NCC’s plans and negotiating were born out of the Rideau eliminate our planning safe- emblem of relevance and dis- ing community business right position. On Sept. 2, staff at Canal. Due to threat of guards (for example: down- tinction. now is in coming to terms NCC headquarters met cor- American invasion in the grading the special Heritage The foundation of the with the planned closing and dially with NECA representa- first decades of the 1800s, a Overlay to a routine minor emblem is the limestone of earthmoving in Stanley Park— tives and helpfully answered need for safe access between variance). the Ottawa Locks that were in the section owned by the NECA’s factual questions about Montreal and the Great Lakes, the original key to this com- National Capital Commission the upcoming remediation. via the Ottawa River, resulted munity. The Rideau Falls (NCC)—that will allow the However, the NCC declined to in the cutting of the canal, and the lumber mill provided NCC to cap the contaminated send staff to our Sept. 3 com- now recognized as a UNESCO the power and industry for soil there. The park section munity meeting, and readers World Heritage Site. growth and sustainability. will shut to the public prob- who were among the 70 or In 1827, experienced stone- The Rideau’s colour is taken ably this month [Oct] and will so people there that evening mason and contractor Thomas from the McKay Blue tar- not reopen fully for over a will remember NECA board McKay won the contract to tan. The stone pillars are from year. The NCC’s overview of member Gemma Kerr at the build the flight of locks at the boundary fence of Rideau its park remediation plan is microphone, doing a masterly the junction with the Ottawa Hall built by McKay and online at www.canadascapital. job of explaining to the audi- River. He was expected to now home to the Governors gc.ca/bins/: follow the prompts ence the technicalities of the use a quarry on the Quebec General of Canada. The crest to “Stanley Avenue Park Site NCC remediation plans. side; however, he found suit- is the filigree work that tops Construction.” As a result of that meet- able limestone close by on the Minto Bridges. The cen- Facets of the plan have ing, NECA and Vicki Henry’s the Bytown side, thus saving We must become as alert and tral gable feature represents involved NECA and other Stanley Avenue group each time and money. In the early ingenious as Thomas McKay the architectural significance community members in wrote to the NCC with for- 1830s, with the substantial and find ways to sustain and of the Heritage Conservation urgent negotiations with the mal requests including that proceeds from his endeavour, preserve Canadian history District. Overall, the emblem NCC throughout September; the fence be dropped; mean- McKay bought 1000 acres of and its built heritage, both in tells a story about our past and NECA’s partner here has been while, Mauril Bélanger report- land near the Rideau Falls, New Edinburgh and across the stakes a claim about our right a Stanley Avenue group led edly worked behind the scenes and the foundations for New country. to exist into the future. by longtime resident Victoria to broker an agreement. On Edinburgh were established. Traditionally, identity has Henry and championed by our A New Edinburgh emblem Sept. 21, Vicki Henry and I We are part of the remark- been symbolized through MP, Mauril Bélanger. The should be a powerful image, were able to meet for an hour able legacy of this great man, emblems. NECA believes main disputed item has been one that quickly identifies with NCC Chief Executive who was later described as that a visual emblem, easily the NCC’s intention to build the community. We at NECA Officer Marie Lemay, to dis- “the Builder of Ottawa” for recognizable as “being” New a permanent, freestanding, believe we now have this. We cuss our requests. his many contributions to the Edinburgh, would supply an four-foot-tall, gateless chain- hope the emblem will be used The upshot: At this writ- emerging capital. appropriate vehicle in our cur- link fence on NCC land just broadly and imaginatively to ing, at deadline, the NCC has Because of our unique situ- rent fight for identity and self- behind the backyards of the heighten awareness, proclaim agreed to drop the fence idea ation, both geographically defence. This would be an 23 park-side homes on Stanley our existence and, indeed, in its original form, pending and historically in Ottawa, the image that, at a glance, speaks Avenue—the fence’s main pur- support our efforts to promote NECA’s written approval of nation’s capital, we are a flag- to the significant features of pose being to stop residents Canadian history and the fine an alternative plan, suggested ship Heritage Conservation New Edinburgh and recalls its from gardening on NCC con- men and women who built by Mme Lemay.